Kiddy Degrade
by Keruha Digifox
Summary: Seto Kaiba should be careful who he chooses to step on. When Tea is the next target of his cruelty he pays with his... Age? When a strange gem turns him into a five year old, he must find a way to change back. What's more, only Tea knows who he is.
1. Seven Day Report

Okay! My reviewers of **Squirrel Stole My Checkbook** wanted it so now they get it. Welcome to my most favorite fanfiction idea. Seriously, I don't know how many stories I made up involving Seto getting turned into a kid but somehow the idea never got old.

Now this isn't exactly like the other chibi fanfictions you see in the Yu-Gi-Oh section. Seto actually keeps his mind, so he's the one who's going to be royally tormented. You know this kind of stuff. Being treated like a kid, being too short to reach anything, being too cute for people to take you seriously, being crushed by Serenity's hug of death. Oh yeah… That's the good stuff. –the creator is messed up-

Just to let you know. There will be no shonen-ai or yaoi in this story. Nor will there be yaoi in any other of the fanfictions I plan to write. I'm not saying there won't be pairings though, because there might be some. Also, even if they are in the story, they won't be anything too serious. Maybe just some Tristen X Serenity, Duke x Serenity to add to the humor.

I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh... And if you didn't know that… Seriously, where have you been?

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Chapter 1 - Seven Day Report  
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After a week of endless research and typing, it was complete. The ten-page report was finally done and at last, Tea had no more worries. It did irk her however, that her teacher could easily assign such a long and boring assignment. It was rare she did of course, but it still was rather frustrating. A week of sweat and blood over a computer for researching is nothing to sneeze at. Tea was just fortunate enough she got it done in time. It was a close call because her work was interrupted several times by computer crashes and other little annoyances. Although she did enjoy the little breaks she still knew she had to get it done as soon as possible.

Tea needed a break, a vacation, something to get her mind off the daily stress of teenage life. Her friends did a good job at easing her in many of those little situations but it wouldn't hurt to take a nice long vacation by herself. Lucky for her, a holiday was coming up and she'd have that vacation. Tea puzzled where she would go and what she would do. Perhaps she could take one of those nice island vacations where she could lie on the beach all day and listen to the ocean's waves. Or maybe, a city vacation would be better. She could eat out at a fancy restaurant, go on shopping sprees, and other fun stuff. Then again, that was kind of an expensive treat.

Right now however, her concern should be on the here and now which wasn't too bad. She would most likely run into her friends at school and the teachers probably weren't planning to assign anything too difficult. This day would be a walk in the park. Tea walked with a slight skip in her step down the sidewalk. She only had to endure this day and tomorrow and she'd have a lovely seven-day break to do anything she wanted.

Tea continued down the concrete path, thoroughly enjoying glistening dew drops and the crisp morning air. Yes, life was good.She could just barely see the roof of her school building coming up on the horizon when she heard a high pitched cry.

"GIVE HIM BACK!" sobbed a small little girl of about seven years old. She had extremely long and shiny black hair and was wearing a cute little blue skirt. Tea also noticed the child had large eyes of a color Tea had never seen before. She guessed one could call them gray but they looked more like silver to her….and those mesmerizing silver eyes were now filled with a sheen of tears.

"Please, oh please give him back to me! He's mine, not yours!" The little girl's tears were starting to trickle onto her pale cheeks.

"Oh, oh, you want him?" asked a boy who looked about twelve. He swaggered around the girl in circles as he held the toy always barely out of her reach. His eyes were hard and cruel as he laughed at the little girl's anguish. Tea noted his Mohawk spiked, reddish-brown hair. Definitely a punk and one with a major attitude. He jiggled the girl's white kitty-cat plush right over her small head and watched in delight as she hopelessly jumped up and down, trying repeatedly to snag it out of his hand. "Too slow!" he mocked pulling the cat plush just a fraction higher than she could reach each time she tried to grab it. When she came a bit to close to grabbing it, he even stuck out his other arm and knocked her away. This bully seemed to have learned how to dish out psychological torment as well as physical pain on his hapless victim

"Please… Give him back. He only wanted to go to school with me," she cried piteously while clawing at his shirt and continuing to hop up and down in her determination to retrieve her treasured toy.

Tea's expression turned into a disapproving scowl. What did that poor innocent little girl do to him? She truly hated kids that acted cruely to the helpless and even more so when it was simply for entertainment when they were bored. Without a second thought for her own welfare, Tea marched over to stop it.

"Oh, you say he only wanted to go to school with you?" the boy asked, pretending to be intrigued, "Well, I guess he'll just have to go to school with you… HEADLESS!"

"NO! NO! DON'T DO THAT! STOP!" screamed the little girl at the top of her voice. She went into a frenzy of trying to snatch her beloved toy but it was in vain. The preteen still held it high above her tiny hands. He squeezed the poor plush's body with his other hand and was about to rip its little head off when he soon realized it wasn't in his hands anymore.

"Huh? What the?" the surprised boy gasped. He turned around to see a very angry teenager who was, to his dismay, even bigger than he was. The little girl sniffled a bit, her eyes were still watery but hope slowly began to dry her tears

"Leave that little child alone," Tea hissed menacingly, holding the plush away from the bully. The punk wasn't sure how to respond to this. Sure, this person was just a girl, too… but she was also pretty tall compared to him. On the other hand, she wasn't exactly an adult… But then again, how would he ever live it down if his buddies found out he had run away from any girl? Slowly and with great difficulty, he gathered the courage to fight back at this new intruder on his turf.

He braced himself and sneered as he replied, "And if I don't?" Tea simply smirked and answered his question by walking quickly towards him. This caused her to look even more intimidating plus it took him totally by surprise. He had never had a girl attack HIM before. He began backing away from her advance. He wondered suddenly, "surely she couldn't beat ME up.. .could she? He looked up into her furious eyes and swallowed. Whether she was bluffing or not, it was not a good idea to take chances. She WAS bigger and she was very, very angry. At the least, he would probably get some nasty scratches that would have to be explained to buddies and family….the whole situation was definitely taking on a nasty turn for him…. "Oooh….W-Whatever," he said, "I was getting tired of the little brat anyway." With that he ran past Tea and disappeared around a corner.

"Here you go," Tea said smiling kindly as she gently placed the kitty-cat into the little girl's arms. Her face was still wet from her tears but at least she wasn't crying anymore. A smile had sprung up on her face to boot. Tea watched as the girl was more that eager to cuddle her recovered plush.

"Th-thank you, lady," she said shyly and wiping the remainder of her tears.

"No problem," Tea replied. With a proud sensation she left to continue her walk to school. To her surprise however, the little girl wasn't done with her yet.

"Hey, where are you going?" she asked, running to catch up to the brunette's side.

"Um… I have to go to school," Tea said.

"Oh, I see, but don't go just yet!" the little girl exclaimed.

"Huh?" Tea stopped to see what this was about. The little raven-haired girl reached into her pocket and dug out a beautiful necklace with a strange gem tied to the end. "Mr. Snuggles and I want you to have this."

"Oh no, I couldn't."

"But you saved him and it will bring you good luck," the little girl whined, "Snuggles wants to thank you for saving him."

"But I already have enough good luck, right now," Tea laughed. She couldn't accept it. Scaring the bully off and helping her was a reward enough. Besides, the necklace looked too precious to simply give away.

"Pleeeaassee! I want you to have it," the little girl pleaded holding the necklace out even more.

"I'm sorry but I can't accept it. Helping you was a fine enough reward for me."

"Please! If you don't take it you'll make Mr. Snuggles sad," the girl said with her smile turning into a frown. Tea took a second to look at the cute white kitty plush resting on the girl's shoulder. Tea figured she must have been delirious or something because she saw that the plush's little button eyes did look a bit sad. Tea sighed giving in.

"Okay…" she said lifting the necklace from the little girl's hands. The gem sparkled magnificently in the sunlight and Tea was stunned at its beauty. She shook her head and asked, "Are you sure you want to give me something so pretty?" There was no response and Tea looked around to find the little girl was nowhere to be seen. "That was weird," she said. Just then, she heard a bell ring. She whipped around to notice the loud ring came from her school. "OH NO! I'M GOING TO BE LATE!" she yelled in exasperation. With no time to waste, she burst into a panicked sprint.

Tea flew through the high school's doors and zoomed past the students already heading for their classes. That was one thing she didn't want to lose, her perfect attendance record. Tea was running so fast that all the students and teachers around looked like windy blurs of color. At that speed she didn't think to watch where she was going. In the end, it cost her when she collided with a tall student who suddenly appeared around a corner.

Papers went flying everywhere, this way and that, all of them being Tea's. She immediately dropped to the floor to gather them.

"Watch where you're going," cursed the dark voice of the person she ran into. Tea however, just grabbed her papers and took off running again. She was in too much of a hurry to even bother finding out who she ran into.

If Tea had stuck around she would have noticed the person she ran into wasn't too unfamiliar. His icy blue eyes watched in annoyance as Tea disappeared down the hallway. "Stupid Gardner," he mumbled, shaking it off. He should've suspected it would be a member of the 'geek squad.'

The collision victim started to head off himself. After taking a few steps though, he felt something slide under his foot. He looked down to see what it was and noticed a stapled packet of papers. "Hm?"

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Tea sat with her friends at their usual spot in the cafeteria. Earlier she had managed to successfully reach class in time. Even if it was only about 2 seconds before the bell rung, at least she made it. Now it was lunch and she listened to the usual random voices of conversations, the clicking of trays, and the clinking of silverware.

"Man, I can't wait until that vacation comes," Joey said happily, "I don't think I told you yet, but Serenity is having the same week off and she's going to be coming here again."

"That's great, Joey. I can't wait to see her again," Yugi replied with his usual cheerful tone.

"WHAT? Serenity is coming over?" Tristen asked excitedly. A grin appeared on his face. Oh, think of all the things he would show Serenity this time and the places he could go with her. Finally, he could see her again and this time there will hopefully be no Duke to steal her from him.

"Hey, don't you dare think about it!" Joey snapped noticing Tristen's expression. His expression didn't change though. Tea sighed, those two were so obvious. She pulled out the necklace she got earlier and examined it with nothing better to do. It was beautiful but there was something about it that made her feel uneasy. She got a strange vibe from the multi-colored gem. It was like there was some sort of spell on it.

"Hm?… What are you looking at Tea?" Yugi asked, noticing the necklace.

"Oh!" Tea broke out of the gem's hypnotic features, "Well, on the way to school this morning I saved a little girl from a bully. She gave me this necklace as a thank you."

"Huh? Hey, let me see that," Joey said snatching the necklace out of Tea's hands. He held it up by its string and focused his attention on the strange rock hanging from it. The gem glittered in the light, leaving him with a slightly dreamy expression on his face.

"What kind of gem do you suppose it is?" asked Tristen leaning forward for a closer look.

"I'm not sure," Tea replied.

"Well, it certainly doesn't look like any kind of gem I know of," Joey said.

He reluctantly handed the necklace back to Tea who was about to put it back in her pocket before Yugi asked, "Hey Tea, if you had that necklace the entire time why didn't you try it on?"

"Oh… Well… Uh…"

"I think it would look really nice on you," Yugi continued, adding a smile.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it on," Tea said.

Meanwhile, sitting at an empty table in the corner of the cafeteria Seto stared out a large window. He thought of his plans for what he would do when he finally got a break out of the educational system. Truly, he didn't care much for school. He pretty much knew everything that was being taught and it was nothing but a complete waste of his time. Not to mention, it was an annoyance to be in the same class the only one who has ever defeated him at duel monsters.

That preppy cheerleader, Gardner, was now also on his list due to that hallway collision course. Sure, the collision itself didn't bother him too much, but the distraction she had caused made him late for class. He was never late! So much for his perfect attendance record. It didn't matter however, as he knew he would be getting his revenge shortly.

Seto looked over to where she and her annoying friends were. He noticed the girl was trying on a strange necklace with a gem on it. Even at his distance, he could see it shimmer a beautiful but strange, almost glowing, green. The CEO smirked to himself. Give the 'geek squad' a moment and they'll probably believe it was possessed, cursed, or some other supernatural taboo. Just then, he got a peculiar feeling. It was an odd one, like he should be worried or something. It was brief though, and Seto easily shook it off. What a bunch of idiotic nonsense.

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The day progressed normally as Tea imagined. None of the teachers assigned anything too difficult, too boring, or too long. Before Tea knew, it was already the last period of the day and time to hand in her 10-page report.

"Oh, and let me remind you that you will be presenting the first pages of your reports today and handing them in," the teacher spoke out, "I trust that you all finished your reports and have them present. Remember, if you don't I'm not taking any late work." Tea smiled, this was the time she had been waiting for when she could finally get the burden off her shoulders.

Tea looked around the room. Some of the students had content looks on their faces while others seemed extremely worried. She found Yugi and Tristen to be prepared as they pulled out the reports they worked on. Joey seemed a bit unnerved, though. It was apparent that he decided to blow it off until the last second… then forgot to do it. Her eyes then came across a certain heartless somebody. Seto had came prepared, no surprise. He slipped his report out and laid it on his desk with a knowing smirk directed straight at her. His cold eyes had an expression of evil anticipation. Tea immediately became suspicious. There was something bad about to happen. She could feel it but she just couldn't tell what it was.

Tea reached into her own trapper keeper to drag out her report. She soon found out something was very wrong. Her report wasn't in the spot she had put it. Tea became worried. She checked everywhere in the trapper keeper. She searched her folders. Tea even looked between pages of her books. However, nothing remotely close to her 10-page report showed up. She couldn't believe it. What the heck happened to her work? She thought back on what happened earlier that day. Tea remembered collecting it before she left, then she helped the little girl, then she ran and… Tea froze. She must've accidentally left it when she bumped into that person in the hall. She felt herself choke. How could she have so easily lost something so important? Something that she worked on for days?

"Miss Gardner, you're up next," stated the teacher. Tea felt sick. How could this be happening to her? "Miss Gardner," her teacher repeated.

"Oh, uhh…" Tea responded.

"Miss Gardner, where is your report?"

"Well… It's… I… can't seem to find it…."

"Oh… I see…" the teacher replied as he wrote something down, "Mr. Greenfield, would you please come up an present your report to the class?"

Tea felt sicker than ever before. She worked an entire week on that report and where did it get her? Nowhere. How could she let herself lose something so important? Now she had a big fat zero to sink her grades and it didn't help any that the report was a test grade. She laid her head down on the desk. Out of all the bad things that could've happened today, why did this have to happen?

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"Please, let make me it up," Tea pleaded with the teacher after the last school bell rang. Her friends stayed behind with her to help.

"I'm sorry Tea, but I clearly stated the report was due by the end of the period today," the teacher explained.

"But it was an accident! I had it done! I just lost it when I collided with somebody at the beginning of school."

"And why were you running in the halls?"

"Er… Well, I was running a little late and… Just please… give me an extra chance."

The teacher rubbed his temples tiredly. He had a long day and this little issue was surely not helping.

"Look, Tea worked her butt off on this project," Joey said stepping in, "The least you could do is give her another shot at it."

"Yeah, come on. Take it easy on her," Tristen continued, stepping in as well.

The teacher sighed. They were probably going to keep bothering him until he went nuts. He has had that happened before and this time was most likely no different. When his students did this he always replied…

"Fine… I'll let you make it up. Just don't let me down. You will do another report but this one will be fifteen pages." Tea mentally groaned. She could barely handle 10 pages. "I will give you the subject tomorrow and you will work on it over the break."

"What? I will work on it over the break?"

"Yes."

Tea fought the urge to scream. It was better than nothing, of course, but she knew it would ruin her vacation. Instead of that relaxing vacation on the beach or that crazy super shopping spree, she would be at home, researching whatever subject her teacher gave her. She just finished doing that on the report she lost!

Hiding her disappointment Tea whispered, "Thank you."

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The next morning felt much emptier than before. There was nothing that made Tea happy, cheerful, or proud today. She had lost a report that took her a week to do and now she was to pay for it with own vacation time.

As she walked to school that day she couldn't help but look at the cloudy sky above her. What a coincidence, the windy weather matched her mood. Nobody knew how much she was looking forward to this break and now it was seemed so far away. She was going to collapse, typing and researching on a computer, before that vacation even came.

Tea's friends promised her that they would help but she felt bad as she was technically taking away their vacation too. She didn't want the three to sink with her because of her own mistake. Tea sighed. She wondered where her report was now. All of her hard work probably had been swept away during passing period by a hundred student's feet. It was most likely resting in some corner of the building crushed, crumpled, dirtied, and torn. The janitor then probably found it and threw it away forever. It tore Tea to even imagine it.

Tea hung her head and continued walking as she reached the outskirts of the high school. Better just get this day done as soon as possible and then get to work on the report.

"Is something troubling you, Gardner?" teased a dark voice causing her to stop. Tea looked up to spot Seto. He was leaning on the wall right next to the school door's entrance with a sly expression pasted upon his face. '_Out of all the rotten luck_,' thought Tea.

"Why do you want to know, Kaiba?" she hissed. With the events of yesterday happening as they did, Tea definitely was not in the mood to deal with insults and wisecracks from the local jerk.

"I was wondering," he calmly replied still using a mocking tone. Tea whipped around and continued to walk away. She didn't need to put up with this.

"I don't suppose you dropped this yesterday," Seto went on.

"Wha?" Tea looked over her shoulder. The CEO was holding up a very familiar stapled packet. She narrowed her eyes. It was her name printed on it and it was the report she thought she had completely lost.

"Kaiba! How did you get your hands on my report?" Tea snapped.

"You dropped it when you charged into me last morning," he stated showing a bit of annoyance in his tone. Tea stopped for a minute. So Kaiba was the one she ran into in the hall? Oh great, out of all the people in the school she had collided with him. It was typical Seto wouldn't let her see her report until after it was due.

"Give me back my report, Kaiba," Tea demanded. She closed in on him to snag her work.

"Oops…" Seto lightly said, letting go of the report. Tea watched in horror as the report she had finally recovered fell into a dirty puddle that covered the ground beside him. It landed with a sickening splash. Tea's heart stopped. Would somebody please tell her that Kaiba did not just do that? She ran over and pulled out the now brown and soggy report. The ink in the letters started to run as muddy brown water dripped from the assignment. It was hardly readable now.

"My report…" Tea choked.

"Hmph, you should keep better track of your stuff, Gardner," said Seto. He then started to walk off. His job here was done.

Tea felt the anger begin to bubble up inside of her. Who gave him the right to destroy all her precious work? Did he even think about how long it took her to finish that assignment? Just when she thought her day couldn't get any more horrid she was slapped in the face.

She stood up and glared at Seto as he walked into the building. That big, rude, heartless, jerk….what she wouldn't give to see HIM suffer just a little bit…well…maybe a LOT!

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That's it for the first chapter. Thank you for taking the time to read it. I hope it was enjoyable. I know, it's a slow start, but the more detail you get in the beginning about the characters, the richer the story line. Plus, I don't like to rush into things. A story turns into a mess if you rush things.

Oh, and I don't mean to beg or anything but please review if you liked it. Favorite it. Watch it. Just plain tell me you what you think of it. Anything! I hate it when people leave me wondering if my story was worth it or not. I mean it's not like I'm blackmailing you to review my story, but it leaves me hanging. Plus, if I don't get many reviews I feel like crap and probably won't add the next chapter until kingdom come. On the other hand, if many people review my story, I might get excited enough to right the next chapter right away and post it the next day. Trust me, it's happened before.

Anyway, thank you for reading again.

**Next Chapter…  
**Tea does make Seto suffer, but in a way she'd never suspect. 


	2. Tipping the King

Okay, welcome back for the second chapter of Kiddy Degrade. Just to let you know, if I can stop being a lazy bum and start typing more I hope to update every weekend. This may alter how often I update the Squirrel Stole My Checkbook. If you read it and want me to update my other story more often, just review.

Anyway, speaking of reviews. I got SIX for my first chapter. Thank you everybody! -gives reviewers cake and the reviewers that favorited and/or watched even more cake- If you're allergic to chocolate, let me know, I can give you something else. You know, something I noticed, is my stories tend to have more than an average amount of reviews for a humor Yu-Gi-Oh fanfiction without yaoi. Still though, I have nothing to be proud of yet. I know of a lot of awesome stories that can kick mine any day.

Now let the chapter begin.

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**Chapter 2 – Unknown Revenge **

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"Okay let me guess…" Joey said, putting a finger to his forehead and meditating. "It's my Red Eyes Black Dragon."

"Nope," Tristen replied, turning the card so Joey could see. Instead of the Red Eyes Black Dragon it was Giant Trunade.

"Aww… Man," Joey groaned.

Boredom had taken the best of them. There wasn't enough time before class started to fit in a small table duel, but it was somehow still long enough to drive them into testing Joey's psychic ability. Truly, it's amazing how many other games you could play with Duel Monster cards.

"Okay, how about…this one?" Tristen asked, holding up another card. Joey took a minute to think about it then jumped up, knowing what it was.

"It's Graceful Die!" Joey said.

"Hey, you actually got it right this time," Tristen praised. However, he took another look at the card. "Huh? Oh. Err… Never-mind. There was a smudge on the card. You got it wrong."

"WHAT? Let me see that?" Joey demanded as he leaned forward to snatch the card out of his friend's hand. He read and saw he indeed guessed wrong... again.

Yugi watched the guessing game from a nearby desk. It was quite sad, really. They had been doing it since the beginning of class and Joey hadn't got a single one right. As a matter of fact, Yugi questioned if he was anti-psychic due to the fact they were only using six cards.

"Well, I almost got it. That should at least count for something," Joey said giving the card back to Tristen.

"Sure… I'll give you half a point to go against the 57 guesses you missed," Tristen joked as he took and reshuffled the card with the other five.

"HEY! I know I was having a losing streak but that's going to change very soon! Give me another!"

Tristen did as Joey told him and picked out another card. He held it up to Joey with it's back facing his blonde friend. Time to see if Joey could actually do this.

"Okay… This time it's Flame Swordsman," Joey stated confidently.

"No…" Tristen dully replied, flipping it to reveal Red Eyes Black Dragon.

Joey twitched madly for a moment. He could've sworn it would be Flames Swordsman. How could his favorite card betray him like that? That was it. Joey would rather be bored than obtain the world record for the most losses at a guessing game.

"Ahh… Who needs to be psychic anyway," Joey said, as he gave up and leaned back in his chair. "There's no such thing as a psychic ability, anyway."

Tristen set Joey's cards back down on his desk. He was kind of disappointed. The pointy haired teenager thought Joey would last much longer in the game. Oh well, it had still been fun to see how many he could guess incorrectly before he lost it. Tristen noticed there were still a couple of minutes before class began so he decided to turn to Yugi for a game.

"Do you want to try?" Tristen asked.

"Uhh… Okay. I guess I could try a few games," Yugi answered cheerfully as usual.

"Okay, I need six cards from your deck," Tristen stated. Yugi nodded and took out his deck. He selected the top six cards and handed them to his friend. Tristen showed Yugi what the cards were then shuffled and picked one of them. Just like he did with Joey, he held the card up with it's back facing Yugi.

"Hmm… Is it… Monster Reborn?" Yugi asked.

"Hey, it is!" Tristen said, revealing the card, "Wow, you got it on your first try even."

"You gotta be kidding me!" Joey exclaimed. "Yugi, how did you do that?"

"I just guessed," Yugi said as Tristen shuffled the card back into the deck of six. Joey groaned and fell back in his seat. He couldn't believe that his friend guessed right on the first try while he hadn't been able to guess any right at all.

"Come on, Joey," Tristen teased, "Don't be a sore loser."

"I'll show you who's a sore loser!" Joey shouted, clenching his fist.

"Take it easy. I was just joking."

Joey gave Tristen a threatening look but relaxed again. He was awaiting Yugi's next guess when he noticed Tea had walked rather grumpily into the room. She looked ticked off, really ticked off. Her face was red from anger and her eyes were flaming in a glare that could almost rival Seto's. Tristen and Yugi noticed her appearance as well and were caught dumbfounded by her furious expression.

"Hey Tea," Yugi greeted shakily, "Uh… Is something wrong?"

Tea y sat down forcefully at her desk and slammed her books down. She didn't even bother to look up at her concerned friends. All she was focused on right now was how much she hated this week.

"Hey, what's wrong, Tea?" Tristen asked. Tea didn't reply. She just proceeded to glare at her books as though they were mocking her.

"Tea?" Yugi repeated.

"I found my report," Tea said, not turning her gaze away from the books.

"Hey, that's great, Tea!… but why are you so angry?" Yugi questioned. Tea didn't respond or say anything to answer that question. She simply reached into her notebook and brought out a damp, wrinkled, packet of paper. Black ink streamed from its letters and mixed with the brown dirt painted on it.

"Woah! What happened to your report?" Tristen gasped. Tea finally looked away from her books to look at her friends.

It was only for a brief moment though before she looked back down and hissed venemously, "Kaiba!… That's what happened."

"WHAT? You're telling me rich-boy did that to your report?" Joey blurted out. Yet again Tea didn't say anything but simply nodded once. Looking at the destroyed report that his friend had worked so hard on, Joey could feel his hatred toward Seto. "That no good punk! Who gave him the right to do that? Grr… Next time I see him I'll knock the living daylights out of him."

"He's right there if you want to get started," Tristen pointed out. Seto was at his desk in the corner of the room, quietly typing away on the laptop he had decided to bring that day. Tea grew even more furious seeing him and his usual smug, superior expression. The way he was acting…it was like nothing had happened…just another uneventful day for him.

"Well, Joey?" Tristen asked again.

"Err… I already noticed that. I meant _next_ time," Joey corrected, "Besides, we're in class. It would just be broken up and I'd probably get sent to detention. I'll make sure to get him after school or something. And this time I want to make sure his lesson is as long and painful as possible."

Tristen sighed. As much as he'd like to see Joey kick the snot out of Seto, he probably wouldn't get anywhere. Joey had tried to beat him up several times before in the past but somehow it never happened or it turned into a duel where Joey got his own butt kicked. Who knows, this time may be different, but it was still highly unlikely. Tristen turned his focus back to Tea who was again slumped over her books, but was now glaring over at Seto. The thought crossed Tristen's mind that it was probably a good thing that Tea had never shown any signs of unusual psychic ability, otherwise Seto would most likely be nothing but a pile of ashes on a chair right now.

"I still can't believe he did that to your report, Tea," Tristen said, "How did he even get a hold of your report in the first place?"

Tea took a few more deep breaths to calm down. It didn't help her much but it did relax her enough to explain. "Do you remember yesterday when I was late for class and how I told you that I ran into somebody in the hallway?"

"Yeah, we remember… Wait… Are you telling us that Kaiba was the person you ran into?" Joey asked.

"Yes, and he overreacted. I didn't do it deliberately, it was just an accident that I ran into him," Tea responded as her tone became stressed and angry again. Yugi noticed her hand had curled into a fist and grew a bit worried. Tea was rarely the one to get mad but when she did, there was no telling what she would do.

"Calm down Tea," Yugi told his raging friend, "It was probably going to be lost whether Kaiba picked it up or someone else. Come on, we'll help you get started on that make-up report right after school. With all of us helping I'm sure you'll get it done in no time and you will have plenty of vacation time leftover."

"Sure, a minutes worth!" Tea grumbled. After taking another deep breath, Tea quietly stated, "I'm sorry, guys… but I am just not in the mood to talk right now. Oh, and Yugi, if its okay with you, I would like to do the makeup work by myself. I don't want you guys to have to suffer too because I let my report get into the wrong hands."

"Tea… Are you sure?" Yugi asked in dismay.

"Relax, Yugi. I think she knows what she wants," Tristen suggested. Yugi hesitated but eventually nodded in response. He looked at Tea with a longing expression. He didn't like seeing Tea this way and really wanted to help her. However, he understood that this time, his friend needed to be alone for a while.

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The day progressed as usual and before anybody knew it, the last bell had rung and students filled the hallways to go home. Tea walked down the hallway alone with head hung and eyes still filled with sullen anger. The subject she was given turned out not to be too bad but she still would never get over Seto's heartless action towards her. At least she would have had a chance if he hadn't been the one to pick up her report. Most everyone else she could think of was fairly decent. So why couldn't it have been someone else who would have done the kind thing and returned her report to her? Oh well…so much for what if and why not…reality bites.

She went outside and felt the wind blow through her short hair. Just then, she remembered the gift the little girl gave her. She lifted it off her neck and looked at it. For some reason the gem didn't shimmer nor sparkle like it did before. It just dully sat there in her hand.

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"Mr. Snuggles and I want you to have this."

"Oh no, I couldn't."

"But you saved him and it will bring you good luck."

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Good luck, huh? Some good luck she had been having. Her report was trashed, her vacation was lost, and she had to type another long endless makeup report. She curled her fingers around the necklace's gem. At that moment, a cynical mood took hold of Tea. She shook her and and shrugged her shoulders. Another glance at the necklace just showed a stone that was now, oddly, dull and somewhat ugly. She was absentmindedly still fingering the strange stone as she moved onward down to the boundary of the schoolyard. That's when she noticed the antagonist of her day. Seto was waiting patiently by the street for his limousine to arrive and take him away from the educational torture called school. He felt Tea's glare burn into his back and looked over his shoulder. The two exchanged dirty looks for minute before Tea walked past him and set forth on her walk home. As she past, she tossed the now ugly necklace to the ground. She didn't care where it landed. It didn't help her in any way. As a matter of fact, it was probably cursed or something and was what had jinxed her. Let the two ugliest things in her life today be left behind her. Tomorrow was another day. Tea shrugged and walked away with a sad grimace. But still, when she was so close to her enemy, Tea had had such a deep and intense desire to actually punch him in the face, right there and then. She wasn't like that, though. The worst she would most likely have done was lecture him, call him names, and insult him. However, knowing Kaiba, he always won those battles, too. It was just no use. Eventually, Tea controlled her emotions and quickened her pace. Oh well, might as well get started on her makeup report as soon as possible.

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The hour hand on the school's large clock just kept moving slowly forward. Seto was starting to grow impatient. All the students of the school were long gone by now and had already started off their weeklong break. The only thing that could be heard was rolled up crumples of paper bouncing along the ground as the wind blew them away. Seto double-checked the clock placed over the school's entrance. It read 5:01. He had been waiting there for about an hour. What the heck was his new limousine driver doing and were the heck was he?

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"Wow, this car is like so rad," said a young lady in her early twenties. Her head was covered by long blonde curls and a goofy grin was plastered on her face.

"I know, but it cost only a small portion of my ever-flowing millions," said Seto's limousine driver. He was dressed up in a rented tuxedo and had groomed himself so well, that he could fool anybody to think he was rich and powerful. Not to mention the girls he had met while crashing last night's party were too shallow and simple-minded to even notice clues that their 'rich' boyfriend was a fake. They weren't even slightly suspicious and everything was going the way he wanted. Unluckily for him though, he was way too caught up in his newfound popularity to notice he was running very, very late on a certain important task.

"So Mr. Nakano, after this little drive why don't we go to your place and have a little fun?" asked another girl as she played with her long black hair.

"Yeah," agreed another on of his 'girlfriends.'

"Will you take us to your awesome mansion?"

"Ladies, ladies," the fraud smiled coolly, "Lets not rush things, here."

"Hey, Nakano? Just curious," asked another girl with red hair, "If you have so much money, why are you driving your own limousine? Don't have a driver?"

"Ah, good drivers are so hard to find nowadays. Plus, I wouldn't trust this expensive of a vehicle to anybody with a lower status," lied the driver.

"Oh! I see," the girl replied cheerfully, actually believing every word he said.

"By the way, what time is it?" he asked.

"Uhh… It's 5:01," the girl with the blond curls said.

"OH, !" swore the driver.

"Something wrong, honey?"

"Oh, umm… I had a business meeting scheduled," he lied again, trying to cover up his fright. Nakano had a huge whopping problem now. Seto was going to have his hide for being so late. That certainly meant no more acting rich guy around the ladies. He'd be lucky if he was let off with just being fired. Knowing Seto's temper however, he might not be that lucky…A queasy sensation hit the pit of his stomach.…he was probably going to get humiliated by Seto first, then fired….He tried to concentrate on a way out of the hole he worked himself into but in doing so, he lost his focus on the traffic and the road for just a few seconds. That was all it took.

"OH MY GOD! LOOK OUT! THERE'S LIKE A DOG IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!" screamed one of the girls. Nakano snapped back into reality to see the car was about to hit a poor defenseless poodle standing obliviously in the middle of the road.

"HOLY COW!" he yelled, as he yanked the steering wheel right. All his groupies screamed their heads off as the limousine sharply swerved off the road and into a parked car on the side of it. The entire group went silent as the vehicle's engine began to smoke from the friction of the crash. The car they crashed into activated its burglar alarm and it started to wail loudly. All of them just sat there frozen from the fright and the shock of the impact.

Seto's driver gulped. Oh god, he was more than dead. He stuttered a bit then calmly said, "Ladies… we're going to get out of the car… we're going to move to Hawaii… we're going to change our names… and we're never going to speak of this again."

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Seto knew he shouldn't have hired that idiot. He cursed as he finally lost his patience and whipped a cell phone out of his pocket. He started dialing the number to his company when he noticed something sparkle on the ground nearby. It was that same sparkle he had seen from Tea's necklace. Seto began to feel that same odd feeling and this time it was strong. Curious, the CEO flipped his cell phone closed. It could wait. He walked over and leaned down to inspect the unusual necklace.

He recognized it by the shape and sparkle of the necklace's rock. It did seem to be the one Gardner was wearing. However, the color of the gem had changed. Instead of the greenish-blue tint he saw last time, it was a strong pinkish-purple. What was more, the colors seemed to be billowing and moving inside the gem like trapped smoke. Seto reached out to pick it up for a closer examination. What kind of mineral was this anyway? Was it one of those new artificial red herrings? He then noticed a crease in the gem began to form and it started to crack.

"Huh?" Seto was clueless and stunned as to why it was doing so. It was against all the laws of nature. He started wondering if perhaps he was hallucinating. The gem started to crack even more, then all of a sudden, it shattered like glass. Gem pieces were sent everywhere as a pinkish-purple cloud emerged mistily from his hand. Seto let his hand fall back to his side and began to back away. "What the?…" Now, this was one bad hallucination…at least…he hoped it was just an hallucination…

Seto watched the cloud as it began to undulate, spin, and transform into a long snake-like appearance. He wasn't quite sure what was going on here but it didn't look too inviting. Then as suddenly as a gun shot, the cloud dived right around Seto, constricting him. If this had been ordinary smoke, he could have easily walked through it, but this surely wasn't a normal element. It look like gas, but it felt solid, like an actual snake. Seto began to struggle in the cloud's grip. What the heck was this thing? He soon felt the strange gas constricting around him tighter and tighter. Seto flailed even more. He began to panic as he felt the air being slowly squeezed out of his lungs. Eventually, it squeezed so tight he could hardly breathe. He started to feel lightheaded. Was he going to die? There was a flash of light, then everything went black…

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Meanwhile… Joey was watching TV at home when something he intended to do suddenly dawned on him.

"Ah man! I was supposed to beat up rich-boy, today!"

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What the heck? OMG! It's a cliff-hanger! Mwuhahahahaha! Really though, you know already what's going to happen to him so it's not that evil… Well… then again… I am cutting you short from Seto flipping out when he finds out he's several shirt sizes smaller. Oh well… I'm going to enjoy writing the next chapter. That's for sure.

Thank you for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it.

Anywaaay…. Next Chapter… 

Tea feels guilty and she comes back to the school to recollect the necklace. How will she react when she discovers Seto doesn't look the same as before? Not pity, that's for sure.


	3. A Little Change of Plans

OMG! I got so many reviews! MEEPERS! –hands out game consoles to reviewers, favoriters, and watchers- THANK YOU! It makes me really happy but I have some bad news. XP

**NOTICE! ALL KIDDY DEGRADE READERS READ! **

I will not be able to update next week. –cries- My dad grounded me off the computer for letting the dog run out of water. I won't be ungrounded until NEXT FRIDAY! I won't even be able to type the next chapter. –sniff-

Ugh… What am I supposed to do all those days off the computer? Watch reruns and suffer from the freaking idiots at school. Why I'm going to… Oh wait, this is K+ rated. Don't want it to go up now.

-sigh- Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

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Chapter 3 – A Little Change of Plans  
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Tea headed back to the school after she finally overcame her rage. She felt bad for letting anger take control of her actions. It caused her to throw away a gift. Whether the necklace brought good luck or not, whether the rock on it was shiny or dull, it was still a special gift a grateful little girl gave her. Even if it was an excuse to put off work on the makeup report, Tea wanted to re-collect the necklace before something happened to it. So on she walked, back to the school where she had thrown it away, praying it was still there.

When she arrived at the school, the building cast a huge dark shadow over her in the setting sun. It wouldn't be too long before it became dark so Tea knew she had to make haste if she hoped to find her necklace. She paced up and down the front of the school, searching for the possible places it may have landed. Unfortunately, she couldn't find anything except a rolled up candy wrapper, an old torn piece of notebook paper and oddly enough, an abandoned school uniform. Tea shook her head and thought…I don't even want to know…She continued her search but there was no sign of the necklace. Tea sighed, finally realizing and accepting the truth. It was gone.

The disappointed teenager stood up straight and looked at the clock. The shadow that was being cast by the building had already disappeared and night was starting to creep in. Tea hung her head in defeat. It was time for her to give up and go back home. She started to walk off when she spotted a mesmerizing green shimmer in the corner of her eye. It was her necklace, no doubt. Tea whipped her head around with an expectant smile on her face. However, that smile quickly turned into a shocked gape. The gem of her necklace rested on the ground in pieces around a string with no ornament. It had been destroyed!

Tea dropped to her knees. How could she have let such a thing happen? This was all her fault… Then again, she would've never been angry in the first place if it weren't for Kaiba, so this was actually all Kaiba's fault. She felt her anger begin to burst forth again. She remembered he had still been standing there after she left. Maybe HE was the one who destroyed her beloved present. Tea shook her head and started to collect the scattered pieces. She was about done when she saw something move in the school uniform she thought had been abandoned.

"Huh?" Tea walked over to examine it. She noticed there was small lump in the shirt. It wasn't too small, like a cat or some other furry critter, but it wasn't too big either. Curious, she bent over and tentatively reached her hand out to touch it. Feeling her hand's presence, it squirmed. This startled Tea and she withdrew her hand like lighting. She didn't want to take any chances in case there was some something nasty under the uniform, like a rat, or some other beastie that was willing to bite off her hand.

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Seto woke up sprawled upon the ground. His entire body felt numb and his muscles ached like they had been run through a wringer. Seto had his eyes barely open but he could tell everything was pitch-black. He seemed to be under a fabric of some sort. He thought maybe it was a blanket, but it felt too restricting to be a blanket. It was like some sort of a loose sleeping bag. Then he realized it, they were clothes! Perhaps even a coat. Okay, who had the nerve to swap his attire while he was unconscious? He could tell they were much to big to be his own clothing.

Seto heard footsteps coming toward him. He wondered if perhaps they belonged to the idiot that had dared to take his attire. Seto then felt something large and warm touch him. He flinched immediately. He had no idea what was going on yet and it alarmed him that some stranger was attempting to touch him at all. He heard a startled gasp. He could tell by the pitch, it was a girl and she sounded startled by his reaction. Seto became curious who she was and if she was the one responsible for all of this. He carefully started getting up but stumbled a bit on the loose clothing. He tugged the large shirt over his head so he could hopefully see where he was and what was going on. The CEO recognized his surroundings immediately. He was still at the school which was somewhat reassuring. However, that didn't explain why he woke up in clothes that were so huge. Somebody was going to pay for this sick joke, he swore silently.

"Hey, you're not a creature," he heard a feminine voice say. Seto turned around to see who the speaker was. He was more than shocked to see the owner of the voice belonged to a certain familiar girl.

'_Gardner?"_

Tea started to feel a bit braver now that she knew what the 'thing' was and she moved in a little closer. Seto was confused. Her face didn't show anger, slyness, or anything he would have suspected. She had a rather concerned look on her face mixed with tiny hint of suspicion. Also, was it him or did Tea seem…taller, a lot taller?

"Just what do you think your doing out here all alone this late?" she asked.

"Shouldn't I be asking you the same…?" Seto started, but he stopped in mid-sentence. A small high-pitched voice had came out of his mouth instead of his usual low dark voice. What was that? He cleared his throat and tried again. But the sound of his own voice on the very first syllable caused the word to end up an even higher pitched squeek of shock.

Tea smiled gently at the bewildered look on Seto's face and asked, "Are you okay?"

Seto cleared his throat yet again to hopefully throw off whatever was causing his voice to sound so…odd. He replied quickly, "Since when did _you_ start caring about me?" Seto realized his voice was still at that same high pitch and he coughed several times in irritation, determinedly attempting to clear his throat.

"Wha? What are you talking about?" Tea was starting to look almost as confused as he was.

"What does it sound like?" he asked acidly. There was a pause and Tea gave Seto harder look. He returned it with a glare.

"Look kid, I don't know who you are. I just saw you lying on the ground wearing somebody's school uniform," she stated. Seto sharpened his glare at Tea. Was this some sort of joke? How could she not recognize him? The thing that made him the most suspicious however, was why she called him 'kid.' He was at least her age if not older.

"Gardner, just what are you trying to pull off?" he asked.

"What are you talking about? I'm not trying to pull off anything… Wait!… How… How did you know my last name?" she gasped, as though she never suspected him in a million years to say what he just did.

"I demand an answer from you, Gardner, not more questions," he snarled. Whatever was going on, it was really annoying him and he was notorious for his numerous bad moods. People FEARED him. Furthermore, Seto didn't like looking UP at anyone and especially not Tea. And she seemed so…tall…now…and just…intimidating…for some reason.

Tea was staring at him intently, a frown of concentration as she looked him up and down but she wasn't answering him.

"Ok, play dumb, Gardner, but I will tell you what happened. I saw that weird necklace of yours lying in the dirt so I went to examine it. It started releasing some sort of gas. That was the last thing I remember. Now, I wake up and you're standing over me. What a 'coincidence'. Fortunately, I must not have got enough of your poison to kill me, it just knocked me unconscious. When I woke up, I was wearing this and you were pestering me about why I was still here!"

"Huh?…" was the only reply Tea could come up with.

"Should I repeat myself?"

"Just how do you know about my necklace? How did you know it was mine? Just… Just who are you anyway?" Tea asked. Seto's eyebrow twitched. Sure, he pictured Tea to be a ditz but right now she was acting completely clueless. Why in the world didn't she recognize him?

"Who do I look like?" Seto asked sarcastically, his patience gone.

"Well, I'd say you kind of look a lot like Kaiba but…"

"Wow… You think?" Seto added sarcastically. A queasy, uneasy feeling began to settle in his stomach. If Gardner still knew his name, then perhaps something was different about his physical appearance that caused her not to recognize him. He questioned what the difference could be. The CEO also quietly hoped that nobody had tampered with his hair while he was unconscious. The thought of being the object of mockery due to having been shaved or given a mohawk caused him to reflexively try to touch his hair, but the long, droopy sleeves of the shirt he was wearing got in his way.

"Wait a second…" Tea said, as she closely examined him. She pulled her head back sharply, however, "No… Silly me. Heh, for a moment I almost thought you actually were Kaiba... Hm… that jerk…"

"Do I have to spell it out for you? I am Kaiba," Seto corrected.

"Huh…? Kai- Oh… real funny, little boy. I don't know what you were trying to pull but the joke is over. You're not Kaiba," Tea stated.

"Excuse me?" he sneered.

"Look, I don't have time to play games with you. I know who he is you know and he is certainly not some grade-schooler dressed in oversized clothing," Tea continued.

Seto proceeded to give her a dirty look. Gardner had no reason to call him little boy. He was eighteen! Did he look little to her? Then all of a sudden, it struck him. His strange high-pitched voice, the huge clothes he was wearing, the way everything looked bigger; they all led to one thing. However, that was impossible! It defied the laws of nature! It defied science! There was no way it could have happened.

He held his breath a moment and then managed to calmly ask, "Gardner… How old do I look to you?"

"Ok kid. I'll play along…ohhh…I'd say you look about five years old," she answered with a condescending smile.

Seto kept the glaring at Tea, but he was also curious as to what his appearance was now. After all, appearance WAS important. Seto put a hand to his face and rubbed his chin. He discovered his face felt much smoother and rounder than he remembered it. Seto mentally shook his head, thinking he was imagining things. The stubborn teenager proceeded to observe himself by taking his hands away from his face and looking at them. To even more of his shock, he noticed his hands were now a lot smaller and chubbier. Things definitely weren't as they should be… Seto began to feel panic for the first time in long while.

"W-What the…?" he stuttered.

'_This is just some little boy trying to pull a prank, right?_ 'Tea thought as she watched as the little boy seemed to grow more and more frightened as he examined himself. This was way too good to be true. Tea knew the real Kaiba was probably already back at his company working with his… his… snooty attitude, unscathed by karma.

Still, Tea could see the clear resemblance in both his looks and attitude. They seemed dead-on, but that wasn't enough evidence to convince her. Just then, the dancer took a deep, long look at his eyes and she immediately froze. His eyes were bright as a child's should be, but they were still the same exact color and the same icy cold eyes that belonged to the destroyer of her report. Those were not the eyes of a typical, innocent five year old. Tea let the gem pieces she had collected roll out of her hand. There was just now way any one could imitate those cold, heartless eyes.

"Kaiba…? Is… Is that really you?" she choked leaning forward for another close look. Seto stopped observing his changes and stared at the ground with a serious expression.

"Get me a mirror…" he commanded, not even bothering look up.

Tea nodded mutely and immediately began digging around in her purse. She pulled out a small pocket mirror and held it out for Seto, who eagerly snatched it out of her hands. After that, there was a long silence. Tea watched as first a stunned expression fell across the child's face followed by a very frightened one as Kaiba gazed upon his reflection. Instead of the fierce face that belonged to the teenage CEO he was expecting to see, he saw a surprised little boy with his same blue eyes and chocolate-brown hair. Tea saw him clench the mirror.

"This… This can't be real!" he shouted in panic.

Tea was now sure this little boy was the same person who destroyed her report and ruined her vacation. It was his time to suffer. Tea's lips formed into a smirk. She had a lot of strange and supernatural things happen in her life but this took the cake. This was priceless. THIS was justice. Even better was the fact she didn't even have to work for her revenge. It was all laid out for her right there on a silver platter. Tea looked down at the gem pieces that now rested on the ground again. Did the little girl's gift do this?

Seto regained control of himself, slowly and with great effort. He whirled around to stare at Tea with the most intimidating look he could muster with his now cute little baby face.

"You're the one behind this, aren't you, Gardner," Seto said.

"What?"

"The strange gas… it came from _your _necklace. You planned this didn't you. You deliberately planted that trap for me and I bet you were watching me and just waiting for me to pick it up so that you could activated it remotely.

"Talk about paranoia…Look Kaiba, I didn't even know a necklace could do something like that. I dropped it out of anger because YOU ruined my vacation. Still, I think you look better this way. Maybe now you will think twice before you decide mess up people's lives in various ways."

"Let me make this clear to you. I am not interested in your lectures on ethics. I am Seto Kaiba and have a company to run and I'm not going to stay in this little body for your amusement. You better find a way to fix this Gardner or…"

"You'll do what? Throw a temper-tantrum?" Tea mocked. By the look on Seto's face she knew that she had hit the jackpot. Even though he tried to hide it, Tea could still tell he was in a total panic. It was the truth though. The little CEO couldn't really do much to her violence wise in that form and who would listen to a 5-year-old brat? Nevertheless, to Tea's amusement, he proceeded to try and bluff his way some more.

"Trust me, you'd be surprised what I could do in this body."

"Oh? Then why don't you show me?"

"Gladly," Seto said, starting to move in, but then…"Auh!"

**THUD!**

As if Seto hadn't already been degraded enough, he had tripped… on his own shirt… and fell face-first on the ground. Laughter began to bubble up inside Tea and but she quickly covered her mouth to hold it down to a snicker. She didn't know it was possible for somebody so heartless to look so pathetic and….cute. "Awww, poor little pidgie widgie…you fah down? Tea intoned in a mock concerned voice.

Seto growled and pulled his face out of the dirt. That was uncalled for!

'Why is this happening to me?' he mentally shouted. After brushing off the dirt, he looked up at Tea's smirk, with a venomous look. "Oh… That was priceless, wasn't it," he said with yet more sarcasm.

"Actually, that was legendary," Tea chuckled, "I will enjoy telling my grandchildren about how I saw the GREAT Kaiba Seto took a facer in the dirt…."

"That won't happen again," he said, stumbling a little while trying to stand back up, "and this time I'll-AUGH!" Yet again, Seto tripped on his shirt.

Tea couldn't hold it anymore and she burst into laughter. This was perhaps the most entertaining thing that she ever seen. Seto scrambled back up to his feet. This was really a royal pain. It would have been more logical for his clothes to have shrunk with him. Instead, his slacks were falling off and only his shirt really covered him. This was the most degrading that that had ever happened to him. He looked back up at Tea, trying his best to look threatening, but failing miserably.

Tea, however, stifled her laugh when her eye caught the school's clock. It was almost seven o'clock. It was almost pitch black now and the streets had just had been recently lit up by the streetlights.

"Oh no, I should be home by now," she cried. Tea had been too caught up in watching her now 'little' enemy humiliate himself that she forgot to keep track of the time. Truthfully, it was not much fun to walk home in the dark, not to mention it was quite dangerous. Unfortunately she had no choice now. Regaining herself, she quickly recollected the gem pieces she had dropped and started for a dash home.

"I take it your going to leave me here."

Tea stopped and turned her head to look back at Seto. He had rolled up his clothes to maneuver more easily, but they were still rather bulky for him. The girl stayed there for a moment to think of an answer, then shook her head. She had no time for this. Little or not, Tea knew Kaiba could take care of himself and he had no right to demand her help, not after what he had done to her.

"Have fun being a kid, Kaiba!" she yelled, running off. Tea eventually disappeared around a bend leaving Seto standing there, alone. He wasn't bothered that Tea left, though. She still could have some other mischief to inflict on him. Far better for now to be out of her range. But there was still a problem. For the first time he could remember in years, he was stuck. Seto couldn't return to Kaibacorp looking like some lost kid. He also wasn't keen on the thought of his little brother finding out there was a role switch.

The chibi CEO felt a breeze of cold air pierce right through his baggy shirt and dragging coat, causing him to shiver a little. His legs were bare except for his socks which he had pulled up quite high. He carried his slacks rolled up around his now useless shoes. Night had finally set in and oddly, he was at a total loss of what to do next.

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Okay, that's it for now. Again I won't be able to update next week. I'M SORRY! I truly am!

Huh, and just a thought. My friend, Shearis said she looked it up and Kaiba means seahorse. Thus, bringing a whole bunch of stuff I can make fun of.

**Well, next chapter…**

Seto gets a taste of city life at night as a 5-year-old lugging around a huge briefcase.

Heh heh… Seahorse Corp!


	4. Cell Wars: Revenge of the CEO

Wow it's been a mess over here. As soon as I get ungrounded we move! That meant I had to help pack and unpack instead of typing this chapter. Ugh, it's a miracle I even go it done in time.

Oh yeah! One of my reviewers emailed me. SoulCaliburSeigrfried said she drew some fan art for the story. She wanted my permission to post it. I told her it was okay but she hasn't replied yet. Well, I can't wait to see the picture.

Oh, and I do own Yu-Gi-Oh. Indeed, I am Kazuki Takahashi… APRIL FOOLS!…… Yeah, I know. Nobody fell for that.

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Chapter 4 – Cell Wars: Revenge of the CEO  
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The city seemed like a whole different place at night. Colorful lights lit up the streets like a palette of neon fireflies. Cars zoomed back and forth, illuminating the streets as people came and went on the sidewalks. Faint music could be heard every so often in the distance, but most of it was overshadowed by the many voices and conversations. Despite the darkness of night, the city of Dominoe was just as lively as ever.

Seto had only seen most of this nocturnal side of the city through a window. He had never actually walked around downtown at night. For him, there was just no need to. Even when he did end up afoot after dark it was only for but a brief moment to get to a building or back to his limousine. To say the least, this was a new experience. However, in the condition he was in now, it was anything but enjoyable.

The sidewalk he followed was overflowing with people, most of them being much bigger than he was in his current state. It was quite a challenge to avoid being trampled or knocked over. Not to mention, he still hated looking up at people. It also didn't help much that he was dragging his usual metal briefcase along. After Tea left, he found it a little ways away from where he was standing. Despite the fact the briefcase was now almost as big as he was, Seto decided to take it with him anyway. Being weighed down by his belongings was a small price to pay to keep his important papers, laptop, and other items from the chance of getting lost or stolen. Besides, his laptop helped him locate Gardner's address and it would most likely continue to be useful.

Seto continued along the path, thinking about the events that led up to his shrinking and mentally searched for a logical reason. Soon he became so entranced in his thoughts he forgot to watch where he was going. He snapped back into reality just in time to narrowly avoid a group of giggly high school girls talking about their plans for the vacation. The chatty girls didn't even notice him and just kept carrying on their conversation as noisy as ever. Seto made sure to give them a dirty look as they passed him. Now, this was starting to get plain downright annoying. As himself, any passerby would make sure to move out of his way, nut in this useless pint-sized body people were nearly tripping over him. Seto shook it off and was about to turn around to keep walking when…

"Yeah, I checked the stock and everything seems-"

"WHA?" Kaiba gasped, right before something big collided with him from behind.

"WAH! HEY! WHAT THE HECK?"

**THUD! CRASH!**

Seto was knocked down onto the cold hard concrete. Slowly, he pulled himself up and locked onto the eyes of the idiot responsible. Behind him was a shaken businessman and upon the concrete, was what seemed to be a shattered cell phone.

"Wha? What the heck? My cell phone!" he shouted staring down at the mess. The guy's eyes took on an angry glower while looking at the 'little boy' that messed him up. "Grr… WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIDEWALK?" he spat.

Seto stood up and brushed himself off as though unconcerned and stared straight into the angry man's eyes. Even though the person was much bigger than he was, Seto wasn't about to run off like any average little boy would. No, Seto was much better than that, little body or not. Then again, his bravery was probably nothing more than his huge overblown ego.

"Maybe if you had been watching where you were going, you would have found out," he replied coolly.

"Kid, that cell phone you made me drop cost me a fortune!" The businessman growled, "I hope you how you're going to pay for that!"

"I don't feel I have a need to compensate for junk," Seto added, still just as calm.

"What did you say, brat? That 'junk' cost me $2000!"

"Are you sure you're not exaggerating?"

"Hmph, and what would you spend $2000 on, little boy? Toys? Candy? Video Games?"

"No, but I can tell you now I wouldn't use it on something as cheap and common as a cell phone."

"EXCUSE ME?" That was a state-of-the-art Zytech cell phone! Do you know how rare those are? I had to special order mine!"

People passing by noticed the little quarrel and took their time to watch in curiosity as they walked by. None of them dared to intrude on it, though. Most of them were tired, recently getting off from work, while others plain didn't want to bother with some hot-tempered man fussing about his cell phone. So the little exchange of insults went on.

"And you think people will notice, or as a matter of fact, even care, because…?"

"Grr… Why you little…"

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to," said Seto and without another word he picked up his briefcase and started to walk off. The businessman didn't take this so kindly and his fuse was reaching its end.

"HEY, GET BACK HERE YOU SMART MOUTHED TWERP!" he demanded, but Seto didn't even bother to stop and look back. That did it for the stranger. His hand curled up into a fist as he hurried his stride after the little CEO. This got Seto's attention, but a split second too late. The guy brought the fist straight down, nailing the back of his little head.

"Gah," Seto yelped, dropping his briefcase in order to grab the now throbbing bump on his head. He clenched his teeth in a mix of pain and anger. How dare he hit him. Seto didn't so much mind people trying to beat him up. He had a few people try to do it before, mainly Joey. It wasn't like they actually succeeded or anything but this was different. That one offense showed just how vulnerable he was in this new, weak body and you could bet Seto wasn't going put up with that.

"Feh, let that be a lesson to you," barked the man. Seto noticed the lowered guard and removed his hands from his bruise. In an attempt to her revenge for the hit he tried a kick, only to meet thin air. The man has simply stepped back out of his way.

"Hah! Is that the best you can come up with?" he taunted. Seto was shocked. Perfect, he just had to be shrunk to the helpless age of five where his usual defense skills were useless. Still, that wasn't the end of him. A smirk appeared on his face. He knew that in this condition he could do very little physically. On that account, it was time to use his specialty… wit…

"Okay… I give up. You win," Seto stated looking down at his feet.

"Hm?… OH! Now that's more like it," the man said proudly puffing his chest.

Seto moved in a bit and looked up at the guy with apologetic eyes.

"I'm sorry I destroyed your expensive cell phone. It was wrong of me and should never do it again."

"Hmph. Fine, I guess I can overlook that but… Wait something isn't right… Kid, what are you-"

**BAM!**

The guy dropped to the ground in agony holding his uhh… sensitive spot.

"AUGH! #! #! MY #! YOU # LITTLE #!" he swore at Seto who snickered at his pain.

"Then again, maybe I'm not," Seto said impishly.

The people who saw the event were stunned, a lot of them even stopped dead in their tracks. Many of them were stunned because some little boy had actually brought the guy to the ground in agony. Others were shocked that the guy was cussing every single curse word known to man in front of this sweet, innocent looking little boy.

Seto noticed the attention and decided it was time to take his leave. He didn't want too much unwanted attention. Truth be told, not many five-year-olds have succeeded in bringing a full-grown stranger down in pain either. Quietly but quickly, he picked up his briefcase and walked away from the scene. Behind him he could hear the voices of the audience.

"What just happened here?"

"#! #! #! #!"

"Dude… That was awesome!"

"#! #! #! #!"

"Oh, how terrible."

"#! #! #! #!"

"Hey kid, come back here!"

"Where are that little boy's parents?"

"#! #! #! #!"

Seto started to pick up the pace until he went into a full-blown sprint. It was definitely time to get out of there.

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Tea was nearly home where she would be away from the crowded sidewalks and night's dreaded chill. She walked in deep thought. Seto deserved what he got for destroying her hard work. Thanks to him she couldn't even enjoy her week off. Well, now she wasn't the only one. She wondered how he was dealing with his change at the moment. Was he still at the school, confused because something supernatural happened to him or was he currently searching for her in a desperate attempt for help? Either way, he was most likely lost, hungry, cold, and absolutely miserable. Tea then stopped all of a sudden. Guilt had started to come over her. Did he really deserve that?

'_Oh, Tea what have you done now,_' she mentally asked herself at the thought of poor, shivering, five year old Seto lying on the ground in oversized clothing. She shook her head. _'Wait! N-no... No way… Kaiba can take care of himself. He keeps telling us that all the time.' _Then the thought of a lost little Seto as he walked down the sidewalk came into her mind. He was okay until he passed an alleyway and some dark figure jumped out and pulled him in. Tea swallowed, starting to get worried. _'He's… going to be okay. I mean what are the chances of that happening?_' Then there was the thought of as sad little Mokuba waiting at Kaibacorp wondering what had happened to his loving, big brother. _'Uh… Uh…'_ In the window of the building she was walking past there was a bulletin board filled with all the profiles of missing children. She noticed it and her heart dropped like a stone. The board was completely covered and some of the profiles were so old they had started turning a tint of yellow.

"Oh no! **KAIBA**!" she screamed. In a flash she zipped around and dashed down the sidewalk back to the high school.

A little ways away, two scraggly boys watched her speed away.

"See…" said one of them, "that lost children board does straaaaange things to people!"

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Seto walked down a new, less crowded sidewalk. He dragged his feet a little bit as he gasped for air. Running away from that scene was anything but an easy task. Especially, when his little body could only run so fast and could only endure so much. And his briefcase was soooo heavy. Seto shivered a bit. This was just great. He was cold, lost, hungry, and overall pathetic. It was a total…

**SPLASH! **A car zoomed by kicking up a huge puddle and soaking poor Seto.

… mess.

Seto gave the car a dirty look as it drove off into the distance. He wringed what water he could out of his oversized uniform but it didn't help him that well temperature-wise. He was already cold enough and damp clothing wouldn't help one bit. He looked around and to his relief he found an empty metal bench. Slowly he walked over to the bench and crawled onto it for a rest.

When he found her, Gardner was going to pay for turning him into a five-year-old child. So far he had located her address on his laptop and was already heading in that direction. Whether he liked it or not, she was still the person responsible for shrinking him and she was the only one he knew who held the key to changing him back. However, walking to her house had been a royal pain so far. Seto wasn't even half way there and his muscles were aching like he'd just ran a marathon. Then again, running away from those people had been a marathon.

He laid his head down on his briefcase and started to plot revenge of the worst kind for Tea. It wasn't the most comfortable position but it was quiet and peaceful. Before long he soon found himself getting a little bit drowsy. He managed to shake it off a little bit, not wanting to sleep outside like some homeless bum. Still, in the end he lost the battle and ended up fast asleep.

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And that wraps up the fourth chapter of Kiddy Degrade. Sorry it was on the short side. Didn't have much time to write it. Oh well, nevertheless, I hoped you enjoyed it.

… OH! I just forgot! THANK YOUS TO ALL MY REVIEWERS AND WATCHERS SO FAR! –hands out laptops-

And… I've ran out of time. OO SORRY! No preview today!


	5. Nice Doggie

Yay! I can't believe so many people like this story! Thank you for your reviews!

Curious, is anybody a member of Gaia? On the website there was a Yu-Gi-Oh haters thread in the anime forums. However, me and a whole bunch of fans came in and scared away the haters. We practically own the thread now. It was funny as we were talking about great Yu-Gi-Oh is and completely random stuff in it that has nothing to do with hating Yu-Gi-Oh.

I went to the mall yesterday. I bought some Yu-Gi-Oh manga (with Seto) and a Yu-Gi-Oh DVD (with Seto also). Better start stocking up. Yu-Gi-Oh is probably on its last season and after that, it will be no more. Yep, thought depresses me.

Well now, on with the story. Again, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, but I do own a dog. Her name is Lakota!

WARNING : The beginning of this chapter may creep you out.

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Chapter 5 - Nice Doggie  
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_'So peaceful…'_

"Seto?"

_'Huh?'_

"Seto?"

_'Oh great? Now what?'_

"Are you okay? Wake up…! Seto?"

Seto reluctantly and groggily opened his eyes. To his surprise he found a preteen with black hair and concerned gray eyes.

"Big brother, are you okay?" he asked.

It was Mokuba! Seto lifted himself off the ground rubbed his aching head. He looked around to find himself in a familiar room with the familiar typing and ringing. He was back at his company.

"What happened?" Seto questioned, in still bit of a daze.

"The person you were firing went off the deep end and slammed you with their briefcase."

Seto looked around once more then started examining himself. No round face, chubby hands, or oversized clothing. He was back to normal. That was a huge relief, but the question was… did he even change in the first place?

'Was that only a dream?' Seto briefly thought, 'Wait… what the heck am I thinking? Of course it was. Feh, 'magic' stone… How could I dream of something so idiotic? The geek squad must be rubbing off on me.'

"You had us worried, big bro. I almost thought you'd never wake up," Mokuba continued. Seto stood up and noticed a few of his best employees were in there watching him with some concern.

"Hm… Well, I fine now so you can don't have to worry," he said reassuringly, "Where is the dead-man who decided to question my authority?"

"Security has already handled it sir," stated Roland.

"Good."

"Are you sure you're okay, Seto? You took a pretty nasty blow to the head," Mokuba asked. It was only natural for him to be concerned for his big brother's good health.

"I'm fine, Mokuba. Huh, this is why I almost hate firing employees."

Seto headed off in the direction of his office and Mokuba happily tagged along. Even though everything seemed back to normal, he had the sense that something was still off key. Something was wrong…but what? The CEO tried to remember what had happened before he was knocked out. Strangely however, his mind came to a blank. Perhaps the clout had given him a slight case of amnesia. Still, something about that suggestion didn't feel right, either. However, right now it was like trying to put together a puzzle with half of the pieces missing. As he walked along he noticed his little brother seemed to be more bouncy than usual.

"Why are you so happy?" he asked curiously in his nicer, softer tone, which ironically he only used with his little brother.

"Come on, you didn't forget about the party did you?"

"Party? What party?"

"Uhh… Remember? The party celebrating your victory over Yugi?"

"WHAT? I won against Yugi?"

"Seto?" Mokuba asked in a worried tone, "Remember? It was one-sided! You didn't even break a sweat and you got your title back! Don't you remember it?"

"Hm…"

"Big Brother?"

"Don't worry, Mokuba. I just think that hit gave me temporary amnesia." Seto was definitely starting to feel something wasn't right. If he had defeated his rival, he surely would've remembered it. Never mind slight amnesia. He would never forget something that important would he? He also pondered on the fact of Mokuba saying it was an easy victory. Yugi was anything but an easy win. Then a horrible idea came into his mind.

_'Wait… This couldn't be…' _he thought.

"Mr. Kaiba!"

Seto stopped as one of his employees came running down the hall to him. He was holding a heft packet of papers in his left hand and an excited look was on his face.

"I got fantastic news, Mr. Kaiba! We've gotten a special letter and thanks to your win against Yugi, Kaibacorp has been dubbed as the greatest game corporation in the country!"

_'No way…'_

"Our sales are up higher than ever before!"

"Wow, did you hear that Seto? Kaibacorp is now the best in the entire country!"

"I heard," he replied. This was way too perfect. It was so perfect that it almost made Seto sick.

"In celebration we found you a new servant."

"Huh…? Who?"

"Uhh… Look down sir."

Seto did as he was told and was bewildered. There at his feet, standing on his hands and knees, was Joey… in a dog costume.

"Woof… Woof…" he barked rather dully, annoyed at this whole deal.

"He's excellent. He's obedient, loyal, and even potty-trained… We picked him up at…"

Seto went blank. He could hear his employee talking but couldn't make out the words. This was too perfect to be real. As a matter of fact it was so perfect that it was creepy. He started to feel nauseous. Soon, everything around him seemed to sickly spin and swivel.

_'No, This couldn't be a…'_

"Mr. Kaiba?"

"Seto?"

"Mr. Kaiba? Sir?"

"Big brother?"

"WOOF!"

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DU… DU… DU-DO-DA… DU… DU

The theme from Mission Impossible rang in little beeps breaking the silence of the sidewalk.

"AAAAAAAH! SHUT UP!" Seto screamed shooting right up from his nap. He shuddered a bit as he began to take long deep breaths to calm down. His new surroundings quickly became recognizable. It was after dark, he was outside, sitting on a bench, and the few people that passed him on the sidewalk were shooting him concerned looks. Seto noticed the familiar scenery, took one last deep breath, and relaxed knowing that he was out of that creepy nightmare. Sure, it would've probably been his best dream ever. However, too much paradise can be plain scary, even for him.

However, that brought him back to his real problems. He looked down rather reluctantly and to his dismay saw his huge loose uniform and little body. Seto scowled. He was still a kid.

"Perfect," he grumbled.

The Mission Impossible theme continued play and it wasn't long before Seto realized it was coming from his own pocket. Seto nearly choked. That was the ring tone to his cell phone. Even though it was about time his company discovered he was missing, Seto was now in bad situation. Picking up his cell phone and telling them a fake reason for is disappearance was one thing. Telling it in an unrecognizable high-pitched kiddy voice was another.

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Tea finally reached the outskirts of the school and began her hopeful search for Seto. Tea shivered in the cold, as she grew more and more anxious to find him. In the end, just as she thought, he was no where to be found. There was no doubt Seto had left the premises. Tea simply hoped it was on his own two feet. Who knew if there were teenage punks hiding around the school who would take joy in beating up an innocent five-year-old? Then again, Kaiba wasn't exactly innocent now, was he, which made Tea worry even the more. With his giant ego and disrespect for others, he was just begging to be the next fresh meat.

The girl shook her head deciding it was better not to think about it. She then dashed off to search the streets. Perhaps he hadn't made it too far away from the school, wherever he was headed.

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Seto wasn't quite sure what to do. He couldn't answer the phone with the cheesy little voice he had now, but if he didn't answer it, who knew what important call he would be missing out on. He searched his mind for any huge business meetings planned or essential jobs he had to take care of. He didn't have much time to think on it though. The phone wouldn't ring forever. Right now, Seto had only two choices. Answer the call and try to imitate his older voice or refuse to answer it or miss out on the call completely.

DU… DU… DU-DO-DA… DU… DU

Eventually the suspension was too much and Seto dug through his clothing and yanked his cell phone out. He smoothly nailed the talk button and held it up. It was time to see if he could pull this off.

He took a deep breath and answered, "What?" as he trying his best to mimic his low intimidating voice.

"Oh! Mr. Kaiba! Thank goodness you replied this time. We tried to get a hold of you earlier but you didn't pick up." Seto gave a mental sigh. The person fell for it.

"I had my reasons. Now what is this about?"

"We think the driver had been involved in some sort of car crash. The limousine was found smashed into somebody else's vehicle on Seventh and Main. There were no passengers found in the car. So again, we tried to call you to get your location and ascertain your safety."

"Car crash?" Seto gasped. _'I knew it. Why did I even hire that sleeze in the first place?'_

"And if you don't mind me asking, where are you sir? We checked the school and found you were not there."

Seto mentally growled. He knew this was going to come up, sooner or later.

"I was called about a sudden task that I needed to take care of," Seto said.

"What? At school? What kind of task?"

"Do you honestly believe I am going to go into details for you?"

"AH! No sir…"

"Hmph."

"When will you be back?"

Seto froze. Did he even know himself, how long he was going to be stuck like this? He quickly stood his ground, though.

"I'm not sure, but it shouldn't take too long."

"What about the business meetings you have planned?"

"Reschedule them!"

"Are you sure we have to do that?"

"Would I be telling you to do so if I wasn't?"

"Okay sir, I'll reschedule them immediately! Anything else?"

"Yeah, make sure Mokuba knows I'm okay."

"I will… Phew, it's good to know your safe sir. We hope to see you back at the company soon… Oh and Mr. Kaiba?"

"What?" Seto hissed. He wanted to end this phone call as soon as possible. His throat starting to get sore from imitating his own voice, which is quite sad if you think about it.

"It may only be me or maybe it's the phone but you're voice seems to sound kind of… uh… Squeaky."

"…"

"Mr. Kaiba?"

"I'll talk to you later."

"Wait! Mr. Kai-" The cell phone beeped, closing the call. Seto was lucky that time, but how long will luck hold up his alibi? One thing was certain. He couldn't afford to spend too much time in this little body. The sooner he got changed back the better. He grabbed his brief case and took off in the direction of Tea's house.

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Tea looked up and down the nearby streets but nothing again, Seto wasn't anywhere to be found. Slowly Tea was starting to lose hope. She was about to give up and head home when she overheard a teenage boy laughing and joking with his friends about a certain event.

"Man, you should've seen it! It was hilarious! The guy was all like, "Yo, you wrecked my cell phone, you little punk!" And then the kid with the briefcase was all like, "Dude, you're like… a loser," the tallest boy of the group laughed.

The listeners exchanged bored glances then went back to acting like they were listening.

Tea stopped. _'Kid with the briefcase. Could that have been…?'_

"But that's not even the best part. When the business dude overpowered him the boy punched him in the…"

"Excuse me."

"Huh?" The guy stopped and looked around to see Tea walking up to him. One of his friends broke out of his straying thoughts, noticing Tea. He was excited. A very good-looking chic had just walked up and was actually talking to them. He quickly elbowed his buddy who was still staring off into the distance and pointed at Tea.

"Woah… Uh…Can I help you?" asked the chatterbox, after Tea stopped right in front of him.

"Yes, that little boy you were talking about…"

"What about the little dude?"

"Could you tell me what he looked like."

"Um… Well… He had like… a brown cut and his duds were waaaay too big for him."

Yep, that definitely sounded like Seto.

"Are you related to him or somethin'?"

"Eh… I guess… you could say that," Tea said sheepishly. Her eyes slid past the person she was talking to and noticed the other two boys who were now ogling her quite thoroughly…and rudely. But then they saw the look she was giving them and it brought them to their senses. The disgusted expression in her eyes as she looked at them, caused them to look away in shamed embarrassment. Tea returned her focus back to their tall friend and asked him, "Did you see where he went?"

"Uhh… No… but I think he went somewhere off… that way…" The guy told her pointing in the direction she came.

"Okay, thank you!"

"No prob… Oh, and lady…"

"Huh?"

"That kid you're related to kicks butt!"

"Uhuuuh… Uh… Thank you!" Tea chuckled, sweatdropping. With that Tea retraced her steps, back in the direction from which she had come, to continue her search. The two buffoons resumed their gestures. Their friend noticed them and shook his head.

"Dude, you guys have no class."

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Seto had finally reached the suburbs and to his relief it was quiet at last. As a matter of fact, he couldn't see anybody walking down the streets. He was alone and Seto was thankful for this. He could think more clearly when he wasn't being distracted by the idiotic chitchat of by-passers. It was going to be an easy walk from here on. On the other hand, he was still cold, still dragging his heavy brief case around, and his body was still aching. And now he was beginning to get a little hungry. Of course, he was good at enduring discomfort, but he didn't enjoy it.

Suddenly, Seto felt something grab the back of his loose, droopy shirt, causing him to trip. Yet again, in the same night, his face had met the concrete. Growling in frustration, he picked himself back up and looked over his shoulder to see a small toy Doberman, its teeth buried and yanking on Seto's uniform. By the scruffy fur and protruding ribs, there was no doubt it was a stray. Seto wasn't planning on dragging a stupid mutt down the sidewalk along with his brief case. The stray was bugging him and he was in no mood to hassle with the critter. Soooo… He gave the dog a swift kick, sending it flying and yelping all the way.

"Get lost," Seto commanded the canine. Too bad strays weren't very obedient. The dog landed on its feet smoothly as a cat and quickly rebounded. The annoying beast once again took hold of his dragging shirt. _'Enough of this,' _he thought. With some difficulty he pulled his briefcase in and with one giant swing, whacked the dog… hard… The poor pup was sent flying several feet away yelping and whimpering madly. After it bounced and rolled a couple of times, it was motionless. Seto turned and walked toward the dog to see if he had gotten his point across to the beast. The dog got it. As Seto stopped in front of it, it jumped up as fast as its little legs could carry it, it dashed off, yelping and yapping all the way. _'Huh'_, thought Seto, _'Good dog…fast learner…better than Wheeler.'_

He turned and continued on down the path with no guilt. Unfortunately for him, he didn't make it very far before he heard snarling behind him. He rolled his eyes. He thought he had gotten that dog to scram. He guessed the dog wasn't a fast learner after all. He whipped around yelling, "I thought I told you to…"

Seto went silent. He wasn't staring down at a puny weak dog. Instead he was looking at the big brown paws of something much bigger. Seto worked his view up from the paws and came face to face with a bulky, rather angry looking mutt. Its eyes were filled with fury as it bared its teeth menacingly at Seto. The little CEO's pupil's shrunk as he swallowed. This wasn't good. He began to back away very slowly and quietly, as he carefully watched the dog's movements. The stray stalked a few steps forward to keep up with Seto as he tried to escape the situation. Eventually, Seto accidentally kicked a little pebble in his retreat and strangely, that set the dog off. It roared, lunging itself onto poor Seto and pinning him to the ground.

"AH!" Seto kicked and flailed trying to get the dog off as it was trying to get in to rip him apart. The dog was stronger than Seto suspected. His struggling barely warded off the dog from digging into him. Eventually the canine got hold of his pant leg and started to pull it off. It was degrading but it was the perfect distraction for Seto. He kicked off the pants, jumped up, then ran for it, leaving his briefcase behind in the process. The dog didn't pay attention to this immediately while it shredded the fabric as best is it could. However, the dog soon realized its prey was escaping and it bounded after Seto, barking frenziedly. Noticing the dog was quickly gaining on him, Seto tried his best to pick up the pace but it was useless. He already had been worn out from the long day and now his loose droopy shirt just threatened to trip him and end his life for good. Seto knew well that there had been reports of children being killed by dogs and by the look in the dog's eyes, he knew it was most likely no different than those type of dogs.

With his chances growing slimmer, he whipped around a corner into an alleyway. It was a big mistake. Seto came to a screeching halt to find a tall brick wall standing in his way.

"NO!" he cried. His heart thumped madly as he searched for a way out of the mess or something to at least help him. Alas the alleyway was empty. There wasn't even a trashcan lid he could use as a shield. The dog skidded to halt in front of the alleyway entrance. It proceeded to snarl as angrily as ever while it slowly moved in like a predator who had cornered its prey.

Seto couldn't believe it. There was nothing going stop that dog from shredding him piece by piece. The mad dog would probably even chew on his bones later for delight. Seto clenched his teeth. He knew he had to fight back but… that dog was so strong compared to him plus he wasn't armed with crushing jaws and pin sharp teeth. As the stray closed in he thought about what got him into this mess. If only Gardner hadn't changed him into a kid, this would have never happened. The dog was close now and he could see the drool drip from its teeth. Seto braced himself, he was in for it.

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DUN DUN DUN!

OMG! It's another cliffhanger! Mwuhahahahaha! Thank you for reading!

And… uh… That's all I can think of to talk about. Bye.


	6. Courtesy Lessons

Sorry about the late update. Yeah, that's what video game rentals do to you. Oh, and is it me or are there becoming less and less good humor YGO fanfictions? I haven't seen one I have been interested in for a while. Huh… Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. Anyway… more Thank Yous to my reviewers. -hands out chocolate Easter eggs-

Oh yeah, you can put down the nasty pitchforks and flame-throwers because I've updated. You won't be at that cliffhanger anymore… Heh heh… uhh… please?

Again, I pwn bashers but don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

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Chapter 6 - Courtesy Lessons  
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Seto braced himself. He was in for it. As he awaited the dog's move, he heard something… they sounded like footsteps…

The dog snarled at him a little more before it made its move and pounced with its jaws open and its claws ready to shred. Suddenly, at the peak of its leap a shiny white and gray blur came seemingly out nowhere and whacked the dog hard across the head. It yelped in pain as it was thrown into one of the brick walls. Seto stared in surprise at the dog that was now twitching painfully on the ground. Then, he turned his attention to the one responsible. To add to his shock, there stood a panting Tea… who was holding hisbriefcase. She looked him over and gave a sigh of relief.

"Phew, it seems I'm just in time," she sighed.

"Gardner?" Seto gasped. After quickly regaining his composure however, he added with an insulting tone, "What happened to you? Did you forget which direction your house was in."

Tea shot him a testy look and responded to his 'gratitude' with, "Gee… sorry for being concerned about your helpless little behind, Kaiba."

The dog Tea had whacked was still in a daze but was slowly staggering to its feet. Tea realized this and knew she had to cut short their touching reunion. Sure, she had clobbered the dog the first time but that was only because it was distracted. Even armed with Seto's legendary ultra-hard metal briefcase, there was no telling what that big, mad dog could do. Immediately she grabbed Seto by the wrist and took off.

"AH! Gardner!… What the… heck do you… think… you're doing?" Seto shouted angrily as he tried his best to keep from tripping as he was pulled along. He definitely didn't enjoy this, having already run out of energy. Not only that but who gave Tea the right to lay even a finger on him, let alone grab him and drag him down the street?

"Would you just be quiet for a moment and hurry up?" Tea snapped. The dog had already gotten to its feet as they rounded the alleyway corner. It wasn't long before the two heard wild barking and claws clicking against the cement.

"I can't… huff… believe you… Gardner…" Seto panted.

Tea continued to drag Seto as she crossed the street. As Tea glanced back over her shoulder, she could see the dog in clear view again. It was now coming down the alleyway…pausing…and now racing toward them. She considered going a little faster but she could tell that Seto, being already worn out, wasn't willing, let alone able, to cooperate. Soon Tea was left with no choice. She'd never be able to outrun that mutt so she stopped. The girl turned around, letting go of Seto's wrist in the process and prepared his briefcase for some action.

The dog complied with Tea's battle invitation by slowing its chase to an intimidating stalk. You could say it looked just like an action movie as it walked slowly but steadily to Tea. Its eyes were ablaze and its mouth foaming with snarls. The two locked eyes and braced themselves for combat. The battle between the territory protective dog and the foolish teenage girl with a borrowed briefcase was going to begin.

Seto, noticing the event, turned his head and began to watch the showdown in interest. Still, he made sure to keep as close to Tea as possible without her noticing. He couldn't take the chance of becoming its target again instead of Tea. The thought of dying in a pathetic and weak state like this was too much to bear. Of course, he wasn't being coward; he was just preparing himself for the worst case scenario. Well, that was in his view anyway. Besides, Tea was bigger and had a much better chance than he did…

The canine inched forward…

First step…

Second step…

A light came out of nowhere and illuminated the street. Neither opponent could tell what it was until…

**VROOOOOOOOOOOM! KA-THUNK!**

In the tense confrontation, neither Tea nor the dog had noticed the oncoming car… and unfortunately for the dog, it had been in the middle of the road. As the car zoomed off Tea and Seto stood there in shock. The dog lay twitching before them, still alive but barely.

The person driving the car put on the brakes realizing he had hit something. He started to become worried about what he accidentally hit. However, in his panic, instead of getting out of the car to see what he had hit, he put the car in reverse. Thus, running over the dog again… and…well…you can probably guess the rest.

"Uh…" was the only thing that left Tea's mouth. After a moment of silence she pulled herself together to say, "I think maybe we should leave now."

"Hmph," was the only thing that left Seto's throat. Taking that for a yes, Tea sighed and began her walk home. The two didn't say anything for a while. Both of them were somewhat relieved that they had found the other, but that didn't change the fact they still pretty much despised each other. It was a bittersweet thing for both of them. However, Seto wasn't quite sure what to think. Even though he now had a chance to get changed back it didn't help the fact that Tea, of all people, had witnessed him in such a humiliating predicament. Just what he needed, more entertainment for the stupid geek squad cheerleader. Even if he got his life back, there was the possibility that she would tell her idiotic friends what had happened and he would be a joke. So even though he wanted to rant and humiliate her, he kept silent for a while, trying to think on how to get himself out of this mess and back in control. He was on shaky ground and it was a new experience for him. For now, caution was in order.

After a while, Seto finally broke the silence, "You know Gardner, I would appreciate it if you would hand back my briefcase now."

"Are you sure?" Tea asked looking down at him.

"Why wouldn't I be."

"It's just you seem kind of worn out and I can hardly believe you managed to drag this thing all the way here."

"I can manage, Gardner," Seto stated seriously. Tea rolled her eyes then dropped the briefcase for Seto to grab and start dragging. Indeed, he was tired, worn out, but he couldn't let Tea think he was weak, could he? It would just open more opportunities for her to mock him and condescend to him. It was a shame however, that he was doomed either way.

"I suppose you want your pants back now also," Tea said humorously.

"What….?" Seto asked glaring at Tea. She smirked and held up her hand. A pair of badly torn navy-blue pants rolled out of her hand into its full state. Seto remembered that he kicked them off to escape from the dog. Even though his shirt fully covered him, it was nonetheless an embarrassing fact. He was pant-less. He growled a bit and quickly looked away. Even still, Tea could see his face was starting to turn a little pink.

Tea frowned a bit, though. Seto was exhausted, probably cold as well, and clearly was having the worst day of his entire life. Plus, there was no way Tea could be helping by acting like she was now. Sure Seto had been a jerk, this was justice. However, there is such a thing as too much justice. It was called overkill. She took a deep breath. This was going to be a pain in the neck to say to somebody like him but it was the right thing to do.

"Look… Kaiba…"

"What now?"

"I'm… sorry for leaving you behind earlier. If I hadn't decided to come to my senses you would have been dog food right now."

"Oh please… Save your pathetic sympathy, Gardner," Seto retorted, "Just because you stuck me in this body, don't think that I'm a helpless baby. I can still take care of myself. As a matter of fact, if a few certain obstacles hadn't got in my way, I would have already been at your house by now. Do you hear me, Gardner? This little body doesn't change a-AH!" Seto had tripped yet once again. To be truthful, it was starting to get quite old.

"Yeah, you were doing such a good job of taking care of yourself when that dog attacked you," Tea sighed as she knelt over to help Seto up. He denied her help though, swatting away her hand.

"I don't need your help, Gardner," he snapped.

Still, Tea remained calm to his reaction and asked, "Then why were you heading for my house?"

"Why else? You have that stupid little stone that changed me into this and you're the one responsible for this mess."

"In other words you want me to help you get changed back."

Seto was about to open his mouth to reply only to finally realize, he was at a dead end. He didn't even have a clue how to restore his body to its former glory. He was still even foggy about how a rock could turn him into a child in the first place. At least, with Tea he could get some background information and maybe improve his chances of finding a way out of this mess. I mean, she hanged around with a midget who claimed there was a pharaoh living in his necklace for crying out loud. Yet, he didn't like the thought that he needed her for anything. Right now however, it seemed he didn't have a choice. Another problem was where he was going to sleep and how he was going to eat. Knowing most shops and businesses, they would constantly bother him about where his parents were instead of providing him with the service he needed. Tea, on the other hand, knew who he was and at the moment she was the only one possible to give him temporary shelter while he searched for a way to repair this mess.

Seto didn't like the position he was in one bit but went silent in defeat. Tea smiled, knowing he had been cornered. She liked this situation he was in. Maybe now she could finally talk some sense into him without his ego getting in the way and that is what she intended to do.

"Fine, I guess I'll help you a little bit, but in return you'll have to do something for me," Tea said nonchalantly.

"And that would be…?"

"Oh, don't worry, it isn't difficult, Kaiba. I just want to hear two certain words from the destroyer of my report and vacation."

"And… they are…?"

"What do you think they are?"

"Wait… You're not suspecting me to…"

"Apologize?"

"Gardner, why should I apologize for your own carelessness? I wasn't the one who left their homework behind."

"Well one," Tea said pointing out her finger, "I didn't drop my own report into a puddle and two…" Tea bent over to stare at Seto face to face with a sly expression. "I'm not the one who's stuck in a little body."

"Grr…"

"So? Are you going to say it or not? I don't have to help you know," continued Tea. Seto couldn't believe this. Since when did he get in such a position as this? He shouldn't have to apologize to her. In the end though, he didn't really have a choice. Eventually, he came to a conclusion… they were only words. They meant nothing. He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

"Okay, Fine. I'm sorry. Happy?"

"Say it again, Kaiba," Tea said with a rather threatening tone.

"I said it, Gardner. Do you want me to do dance to it also?"

"I want you to say it like you mean it, Kaiba… That is… of course… unless you want to dance to it…"

"Keep dreaming. Fine… Since your obviously deaf I'll say it again… I'm sorry."

"I'm not getting the correct emotional output here…"

"Get over it. I said it," Seto stated with a fierce angry look. Tea stood there for a moment staring down at him.

"I guess you can't convince some people," she eventually said, shrugging. She then continued off down the sidewalk leaving Seto behind.

"Where do you think your going, Gardner?" Seto asked acidly. Tea briefly stopped and turned her head a tiny bit to look over her shoulder.

"Home. It's apparent you don't need my help that bad," she replied and proceeded to walk away. Seto's eye twitched a bit. He could feel the breeze pick up around him. Matter of fact, it billowed up his shirt…the cold air reminded him again of his vulnerable condition. He could also hear a few dogs growling and barking in the distance, making him shudder. He was still terribly worn out and there was no way he could outrun anything that might have a bone to pick with him. After a moment's hesitance he dashed after Tea.

"Don't think you're… getting rid of me that… huff… easily," he panted after running in front of Tea. She looked down and noticed his shoulders raise and lower with every breath. Sweat trickled down his forehead and the cold stare he aimed at Tea was filled with exhaustion. "You're going to… huff… help me… whether… you want to or… not…" Not long after saying that, his small body couldn't handle the stress anymore. He dropped to his knees but didn't express defeat as he continued to expectantly glare at Tea.

A concerned look came across Tea's face. He was overexerting himself. She never was going to leave him behind. She just wanted to see how desperate he could get. Even though he didn't give in to say sorry she could tell… he was pretty desperate. Truth be told, she didn't really like seeing him in this state. It was just too pathetic. She sighed and knelt down beside him.

"Fine, come on," Tea said as she reached under his arms and lifted him from the ground.

"Gardner… what do you… think you're doing?"

"I'll help you, but you need to take a break, Okay?" The teenager pulled the briefcase out of his hand and carried it along side as she continued walking.

"I can walk you know," Seto declared half-heartedly but not even bothering to struggle out of her hold.

"Will you just give it a rest?" Tea sighed. It was quite surprising for her. Seto was amazingly light on her arm. Of course, he would be, having been changed into a kid, but it felt awkward knowing who he was. It was almost hard to believe he was the same person.

"Put me down Gardner," she heard him demand.

"Or else…?" Tea asked rather curiously. Seto went limp without saying a word to that. He didn't like Tea carrying him but the truth was it was kind of nice. It was good to be off his feet at last. Eventually he caved in. "I thought so…" Tea said slyly.

"Fine, this one time, but don't you dare try to do it again."

"Well, its not like I'm enjoying it either."

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After a few more minutes of walking, Tea stopped in front of a two-story house surrounded by a lovely yard filled with grass, flowers, and a couple trees. The light that lit up the garden was a small yellow porch light. Tea slowly set down Seto and his briefcase then walked to the door.

"Hm… not bad. I was suspecting more of a dump," he commented, examining the yard as Tea pulled out her keys to unlock the door.

"I don't know whether I should be grateful or thump you for that," Tea replied opening the door. Seto grabbed his briefcase and headed inside to find it just as nice as the yard. It was clean for one thing. There were no messes or trash anywhere on the soft plush carpeting. The walls were painted a simple grayish-white to match the beautiful trim design. Middle class furniture also decorated the room and added a comfortable homey feeling.

"Okay Kaiba, like it or not, if you're going to stay here for a while you're going to have to follow a set of rules," Tea stated looking down at him with a serious expression. He rolled his eyes.

_'Here we go,' _Seto mentally groaned.

"First of all, my room is off limits. Don't you dare even think about entering it, Kaiba."

"Why would I even care about going into your room?" Seto remarked. Tea gave him an annoyed look for a second but continued.

"Second, thanks to you I will be working on a make up report. I do not want to be bothered when I'm working on it, you hear me?"

"Whatever."

"Third, you're cooking your own meals."

"What-Oh… Fine," Seto replied. He was secretly a little irked about this since at home he usually had his personal chef or maid prepare most of his and Mokuba's meals. As a matter, it was very rare he prepared his own dinner and even when he did it was something quick and easy to make.

"Fourth, could you at least try to be decent. If you're going to live with me I don't want to have to put up with your sarcasm and remarks."

"And…?"

"You're going to have problems with that fourth one aren't you."

"Look, after you tell me all you know about the stone that shrunk me I won't even bother with you. My main concern is changing back, not making myself comfortable in your house."

"Okay, Good!" Tea said rather angrily, "Then the guest bedroom is upstairs to your right."

"Why, thank you, Gardner," Seto thanked her rather insincerely.

"You're welcome," Tea replied still using an angry tone. With that she watched Seto as he headed up the stairs with his briefcase thudding against every step. Eventually she saw a shoe bounce down the stairs. Some frustrated growling followed it as Seto came back down to reclaim it. She turned around and shook her head. This was going to be a long week.

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And that was chapter 6 of Kiddy Degrade. I hope you liked it.

Oh yeah, by the way, I'm considering writing a new fanfiction ((Don't worry, Kiddy Degrade will still be my main update objective)) sometime in the future called The Neko, the Mutt, and the Richboy. If you read my author notes on Squirrel Stole my Checkbook it's the second one where Seto and Joey get stranded in a completely random world.

Also… Here are some other fanfiction ideas I may consider to write sometime. All of them are going to be humor by the way. I kind of have problems when writing something that isn't funny.

Mambo #6 - Mai has won a contest rewarding her with four tickets for a three-night vacation on an island paradise. With some spare tickets, who else to invite except Tea and Serenity for an all girl hangout. Well, guess Rebecca, since she won't stop begging. Still there is an itsy bitty problem when they happen to board the wrong yacht. Will their vacation still be fun?… Not likely.

Choking on Bombs - Ah… Poor, poor, Seto. Alas, his brother has once again been kidnapped. However, there's a twist this time that puts the entire city of Dominoe at risk. With bombs planted everywhere and in places that perform a mind game, it's up to Seto to find them before time runs out. Only armed with the hint notes given out after each bomb is deactivated, how will he be able to stop their chain reaction to destroy the city? Especially when the bombs are placed in the most inconvenient places like let's say… Yugi's very own room.

I have a few others but I'm not quite sure on them yet. Well, anyway if anybody is interested in these please let me know.

**Anyway… Next Chapter of Kiddy Degrade…**

Tea finds some new fitting clothes for Seto to change into. -wink wink- LET'S GO SHOPPING!

Oh, and to make things clear. No dogs were hurt in the making of this chapter… Well... except that one.


	7. Morning Cheer

WOW! I can't believe it! I got 11 reviews after posting this chapter! YAY! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! -whistles and trucks come in with plasma screen TVs- I can't believe it. I never thought I get so many reviews from one chapter.

Okay people, here's the next chapter. I apologize if it seems a little bit um… hasty. I was having a big writer's block. Oh well, it's over now and I have the next chapter pretty much planned out.

Oh, and this is Keruha bringing news from the Yu-Gi-Oh Haters Thread on gaia. We had another basher and this girl was the most ridiculously childish basher alive. She didn't even know sarcasm was a word. XD Truth is, I'm kind of disappointed she left because she was so fun to taunt.

Anyway…. Me no own Yu-Gi-Oh. Now, let's get to the chapter.

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**Chapter 7 - Morning Cheer  
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The morning sun peeked through the window of a certain room within the Gardner residence. Its golden shine lit up the room and spread the cheer for a fresh start on the day. Birds sang outside to continue the joy while bees buzzed and worked in Tea's garden. Yes, it was a bright, shining, happy way to wake up… Ah, who am I kidding? It still sucked.

On a king-sized bed used for guests, a small lump lay covered up by a few layers of bedding. Seto was rather restless under the sea of bedding and constantly shifted his position, not wanting to give in to the sun's wake up call. Last night had been rough. Furthermore, considering that few changes had been made to his life, there almost seemed no reason to get up. However, he eventually gave in and grumbling, dug through the sheets searching for a way out. Seconds later a small little boy with messy brown hair and sapphire colored eyes poked his head out from under the bed sheets. He focused his thoughts on the morning sun with a tired and annoyed glare, then abruptly dumped his face into a pillow.

If this had been the normal day he had planned for, he would have woken up in his own fancy feather bed, in his own personally designed room, and would have gladly started the day for work. Unfortunately, right now, he was sleeping in the bed of a guest bedroom in the house of the person responsible for his humiliating new form. Since when did he, Seto Kaiba, become a charity case?

He groaned a bit as he pulled his face out of the pillow. The boy sleepily crawled out of the bed only to get his foot tangled in the wrinkled covers. This caused him to tumble face-first off the bed and onto the plush carpeting below. Part of the covers were pulled down with him as well and formed almost a maze of fabric around him. He caught a reflection of his predicament in a door mirror across the room. He looked quite pathetic and yet also comical, entwined and sprawled across the floor. Seto expressed his frustration with an irritated grimace that from then on seemed permanently frozen on his face. The day had barely started for him but he had already confirmed two things. Today was probably going to be a pain in the butt… and that he needed coffee.

Slowly, he got up, stifled a yawn, cracked his neck a bit, and then headed out of the room to search for coffee. He soon discovered after leaving his room that the door to Tea's bedroom was closed and the house was very quiet. The mental picture of her still peacefully snoozing away irked Seta even more. If he was feeling miserable then why should she not be miserable too? But, on the other hand, seeing as Tea still had the cursed gem pieces that transformed him into a child, he decided he had better tread softly and try not to anger her too much…yet. And even though he couldn't be certain, for now the gem pieces seemed to be his only link to changing back. So, even though Seto was anxious to immediately start examining and experimenting with the gem pieces, it would have to wait.

The CEO headed downstairs for the kitchen. He was still rather drowsy and slumped a bit as he walked. When mornings like this happened it was always refreshing to drink a nice large cup of caffeine filled coffee. Especially when you knew the day was probably going to be a 'difficult' one. He just hoped that Tea was bright enough to have coffee in her house and not the decaf rubbish either.

When Seto finally reached the kitchen he got started on his search. Of course, most people he knew of (including himself) kept their coffee mix in either the pantry or the upper shelves of their kitchen so he decided to start on those places first. Sadly though, during his search he discovered one big annoying disadvantage… his newly short stature.

"Great…" he mumbled sarcastically looking up at several rows of pantry shelves. He couldn't even see what a lot of them held let alone reach them. With this in mind, he had no choice. If he was to get what he wanted he was going to have to improvise around this embarrassing fact and get assistance. He walked over to the dining table, which was conveniently placed in the kitchen and dragged out one of its polished wooden chairs and dragged it over to the pantry. It was the perfect stepstool.

After a brief moment of elevated searching he found his prize. It wasn't his favorite coffee brand but the mix would just have to do. He reached out a hand to grab it when…

"Urg…" Seto's fingertips were only inches away from the box when he realized he couldn't reach any further. Alas, even with the elevation the chair gave him he was still too short to reach the coffee. With a frustrated sigh, Seto withdrew his hand, jumped off the chair, and began to hunt the house for a higher pedestal. Still, he didn't find anything that could help. He eventually returned to the kitchen and stood staring at the chair and the coffee. Then he noticed something. The back of the chair had slats…sort of like a ladder…If he climbed it, it might give him the extra few inches he needed. And even though it was a bit dangerous, it was the only way he could see that might work.

Holding onto the pantry shelves to balance him, Seto crawled on top of the chair's slim back. It was a rather scary act as the chair wobbled unsteadily under his feet but it was just the boost he needed. Seto was able to easily grab the box of coffee mix and smirk in triumph and satisfaction with his success. His childish form may have made certain things bothersome to deal with but there was nothing he, Seto Kaiba, couldn't handle. Like he had said yesterday, this little body didn't change a thing.

**CREAK! URK!**

"Huh?" Seto gasped a split second before the chair succumbed to his weight and slid out from underneath him. After grabbing the box of coffee mix Seto had forgotten to keep a steady hold on the shelves for balance. So you could say it wasn't exactly a graceful descent. Seto yelled in panic and instinctively threw the coffee in the air as he tried to grab hold of the edge of a shelf to delay his fall. The fingertips of his hands managed to grab the edge of one of the shelves. He hung there for a second, relieved, until the box of coffee mix he had thrown in the air came down on his head, stunning him and causing him to loose his tenuous grip. He continued his plunge…all the way down…and landed with a very hard and very painful THUD on the kitchen tile.

"Ow…" Seto panted moaned.

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Tea came down the hallway stretching and giving out a very long yawn. Last night, had been a bit of a long one. She hadn't been able to sleep due to all the worries going around and around in her mind. She had a makeup report to get started on, her friend's rival was now a little boy, and to top that off she had somehow gotten hold of some mysterious cursed stone. Tea stumped down the stairs sleepily, barely able to stay awake even though the sun was shining brightly…she wondered why she was even awake at all…

"AHHHH!"

Tea snapped fully awake at the sound of the now familiar, high-pitched scream and she tensed. "Oh no! Kaiba!" she yelled. Immediately she dashed in the scream's direction. She raced into the kitchen so fast that her slipper covered feet slid on the smooth ceramic tile. "Kaiba where are you? Are you…" she desperately called whipping her head this way and that, but Tea soon realized the cause. She found the certain dazed little boy sitting on the floor, gingerly touching a very large bump on his head. A fallen chair and a box of coffee mix lay next to him, revealing much of the story without questions.

"Rotten vertically-challenged body…" Seto mumbled as he stumbled to stand up, still rubbing his aching head. Tea started to feel a bit sheepish. She couldn't believe she had overreacted so much over this. It was like almost fainting over a slight bruise.

Nonetheless, she knelt down next to him and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just fine…simply wonderful." Seto replied sarcastically as he let go of his bump, "Huh, it's about time you woke up, Gardner I was starting to get worried. I almost thought I'd have to wait until noon for you to get your butt out of bed."

"Ugh…" Tea groaned. Having to deal with Seto's perpetually bad attitude and cranky disposition made going back to bed sound like heaven. As a matter of fact she would've done so right then if she hadn't had so much work to do.

"Now Gardner, after I'm finished with this one little activity, we're going to have a talk about that pebble which stuck me in this pathetic body…" Seto declared, picking up the box of coffee mix, "And I want exact details." Now that Seto had the mix, it was time to search for a mug. He walked over to the kitchen counter and with some difficulty climbed up onto it.

"Well, I won't have much to tell you, Kaiba. I don't know how it works myself," Tea replied watching him search the cupboards one by one. His refusal to nicely request a mug just made Tea more determined not to help him find them.

"I wasn't expecting you to know how it works. I was expecting you to tell me where you got it," Seto stated, closing a set of cabinet shelves and moving on to the next.

Tea rolled her eyes, half to his snooty tone, half to the fact he was nowhere near the coffee mugs. She sighed, "I got it from a little girl…" Seto stopped for a second and gave Tea a suspicious and skeptical look.

"You're joking…" he said with the darkest tone he could muster.

"Well, it's the truth," Tea replied

"Hmph, we'll talk about this more after I have had my coffee." Seto continued his quest. Tea rolled her eyes once again and seeing as Seto really didn't want to talk anymore for the moment, began to walk out of the room. What a pompous little dictator that Seto was!

"Oh, by the way, if you're looking for the mugs they're in the cupboard above the fridge," she said pausing for a short minute without looking back at him.

Seto stopped digging through cabinets and looked over his shoulder to where the fridge stood. To his dismay the top of the fridge was almost as high as the pantry shelf making him cringe. He barely escaped the last fall with a mere bump on his head. Seto truly hated his new body. Tea looked over her shoulder to enjoy the look on his face.

"Is something wrong?" Tea asked in mock innocence. Seto scowled his annoyance once again. The teenager guessed she could help him this one time. After all, anymore bumps and bruises would just make him even more cranky and obnoxious than he already was. She held in her laughter as she walked over to fridge and opened the cabinet. Tea pulled out a thick white glass mug and very, very slowly, went over and set it down next to the now fuming Seto…. Noticing the words on it Seto intensified his irritated look at her. Printed on the cup in big bold letters were the words, '#1 MOM.' Tea was now clearly snickering at his disgusted expression.

"Whatever…" Seto mumbled picking up the mug. He didn't care what it said, he just needed coffee right here and now. He walked over to the microwave with the box of mix in one hand and the mug in the other, sat down, and started reading the directions.

Still snickering, Tea decided to go back upstairs and prepare for the day. After brushing her teeth and all the usual stuff she headed to go back downstairs. However, passing her room, she paused. A very interesting thought had just occurred to her and without hardly any hesitance, she went back into her bedroom, straight to the closet.

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After a couple minutes the microwave gave a friendly beep telling Seto his coffee was done. He, of course, grabbed it and immediately took a nice gulp of the beverage. To his shock, he found it amazingly odd tasting and bitter and it wasn't the good bitter either. It also tasted….burnt…

"Bleh!" he coughed spitting it out, "They call this coffee?"

He shuddered from the taste, but he still lacked the caffeine that only coffee could provide. In the end, Seto decided he had to find a way to make it taste better. He scanned the room for the key substance to coffee sweetening… sugar. Fortunately for him a holder sat on the dining table filled to the brim. Finally, something good that wasn't placed five feet above him.

Seto sat down in one of the chairs and pulled the sugar to himself. After adding a few pinches to his drink he took a sip. Nope, it still tasted like mud. He added a few more. He still found it to taste nasty. Seto kept adding more and more sugar to his coffee until he flat out lost it and dumped the entire holder into the mug. He took a sip and his stomach churned. Now it was too sweet to even be called coffee. In disgust, he gave up on the coffee and dumped the entire mug into the sink.

As Seto did that he was unaware of Tea's entrance into the room. She walked in rather impishly holding 'something' behind her back.

"Oh… Kaiba…"

"Huh, impeccable timing, Gardner. I wanted to ask if you had any other coffee brands that don't taste like raw sewage." Tea gave him a dirty look for the comment.

"If you don't like the coffee, don't drink it," she stated.

"Do you always have to state the obvious?" he dully asked.

"Well, a lot of the time I feel you don't listen," she fought back.

"And you still haven't figured out I have a reason for doing that?"

"Ugh… Fine… Keep to your cocky self."

"By the way Gardner, what are you trying to hide?" Seto questioned her suspiciously as he tried to cock his head to the side to see what she was hiding behind her back. To this Tea smirked. It was payback time.

"Seeing as neither of us know how long you're going to be stuck as a kid I decided to find a few essentials for your stay. I dug around in my room a bit and…"

"And…?" Seto asked impatiently.

"And I found some of my old clothes from when I was little," Tea continued. From behind her back she pulled out a set of little clothes that were about the perfect size for Seto. A red and yellow T-shirt with pictures of panda's and bamboo hung from her hand with a cute pair of green shorts to match. Seto's right eye twitched a bit.

"Uh… No thanks…" he said.

"Come on, you know you want to…" Tea teased. Seto's face was starting grow a lovely shade of pink. It made him nauseous enough that something like that could actually fit him , let alone having to endure Tea's mockery.

"No… I don't…"

"Aww… Why not, Kaiba? I think you'd look absolutely adorable in it."

"Gardner… There is no way you are going to get me to wear something as ridiculous as that!"

"You're not planning on staying in your oversized uniform for….who knows how long are you?" she asked.

"At least it would be better than wearing that ridiculous rubbish," said Seto keeping his ground. Tea knew she wasn't about to get anywhere on this. From past encounters with him she could already figure he was terribly stubborn, so she thought of cruel but funny trick. Even if it didn't work it would probably still be good for a laugh and to knock his ego down a few inches.

"Okay… If you don't want to wear it, I guess I can't force you… Hm?… Is that a sliver of your… underwear… I see?"

"Huh?" Seto gasped and reflexively looked down desperately trying to find what she was talking about. His clothes were extremely loose around him and it was quite possible for what she said to be true. He was already embarrassed enough and he didn't need more things for her to tease him about. However, he noticed nothing wrong and realized he was just being teased again.

"Wow, I never figured you for gullible type," Tea laughed.

"You low…"

"Still, you're clothing _is_ really loose, you know, and that _could_ happen."

"Gr… I know what you're trying to pull Gardner and you're wasting your time… not to mention mine. I am not changing into those clothes!"

"Okay… okay… Fine… Have it your way… I just thought they would be more comfortable for you. Not to mention assist you in disguise."

"Disguise? And what do I need a disguise for?"

"Well, we can never be too sure if _Yugi_decides to come over and help me with the makeup report," Tea warned him causing Seto to freeze. The thought of _him_, his rival, the only one who's ever defeated him at duel monsters, finding out he had been turned into to a snot-nosed grade-schooler made him shudder. Knowing Yugi, he would be just the one to believe in hocus-pocus curses and even worse, what if the mutt found out about Seto's predicament also? Then Wheeler would probably be laughing and telling everybody he ran into about what had happened. Seto's pupils shrunk in fear of more humiliation than he was already taking. "Well?" Tea asked.

"I don't suppose he… comes over to your house often."

"Well, we ARE good friends and…"

"ALRIGHT! FINE! I'll… I'll… wear the gaudy clothes…" he mumbled.

"What did you say?"

"Just give them here," he demanded wrenching the shirt and shorts from her hand. With that he carried the clothes upstairs to get changed. Tea smirked. She had won that round.

_'At least that got through to him,'_ she laughed in her head.

-------------------------------------------------

A few minutes later Seto came downstairs changed into the new attire. Gradually, he decided the clothes weren't too bad. They could've been a lot worse. They could have been pink and showed cute little kittens on it. Still, that didn't change the fact that the shirt was intended for little snot-nosed twerps. He crossed his arms. He couldn't help it. He had this compulsion to try to hide the pandas printed on the shirt. Gardner better not whisper a word about this to anybody.

Tea noticed his entrance and was quite surprised to say the least. He actually looked like a normal person for once, not to mention, stunningly adorable. Tea caught herself. Appearances can be deceiving. Seto, adorable? Get real here girl. Matter of fact, she was starting to rethink about letting him wear her childhood clothes. They WERE very special, of course, sentimental memories were attached to them. But after staring at Seto for a few seconds too long, she had to say something, anything, to break the uneasy tension.

"Wow… uh…I didn't think… you'd actually do it," Tea stuttered lamely.

"I have my priorities, but don't you dare say a word about this."

"Don't worry, I won't… Just don't destroy them, please. They're special," she told him. Tea instantly regretted saying those words as she noticed a slightly mischievous spark come into Seto's eyes.

"Alright…" he replied sleazily. This made Tea a bit nervous while she watched him crawl into a cushioned chair and relax. "Now that's over, can we move on to the questions I wanted to ask you about the necklace or do you have more _essentials_?"

"Uhh… No…"

"Good. Now… If I remember correctly from the kitchen you said a little girl gave you that necklace."

"Yes," Tea replied.

"Who was she?"

"I don't know. She didn't even give me her name. I just saw her being bullied on my way to school the other day so I helped her. Not to mention it was the same day you stole my report," Tea couldn't resist reminding Seto about HIS bad conduct.

"The past is over, Gardner. Get over it and get to the important facts. What did this girl look like?" Seto demanded. Tea let out an angry sigh. How can he expect her to get over something so devastating to HER life? It was because he didn't care about her personal happiness, let alone anybody else's. That's why.

She looked at him with a sharp scowl but then she softened her look at him. He looked hilarious right now compared to who he really was. It appeared he was trying to manage a threatening look at her and he would have pulled it off like a charm. That is, if it hadn't been for his huge bright eyes and his cute pinch-able cheeks. As a matter of fact, he looked more like a spoiled brat who hadn't gotten the toy he wanted _'What am I thinking?'_ thought Tea…_'Kaiba IS a brat!'_

"Any day now?" Seto said growing impatient to Tea' delay of words. She didn't listen to him, however. Her mind was focused on one thing and that was why she was helping this brat. Tea knew it was the right thing to let him stay here but she wondered why she should answer any his questions. He was the "genius". She could have him figure out all this stuff out for himself. SHE had other things to do.

"Gardner, do I have to repeat the question?"

Then again, she had revenged herself and she truly didn't want him to have to stay like that. There were just so many factors and people that unfortunately needed him, including Mokuba and the people who worked at Seto's company. They were just innocents caught in the situation that didn't deserve the possible bad results.

"Gardner?"

Another thing she considered was if Seto was stuck in this body for very long, the only one to take care of him would be her. That made her cringe. Although he looked cute and cuddly, he was still a mouthy pain in the butt. She really didn't fancy the idea of having to deal with his wisecracks and criticisms. Plus, to be at beck and call twenty-four hours a day was not exactly appealing, either..

"Would you wake up?"

Before Tea knew it something solid and hard collided with her face. She grasped her spot in pain. She heard something flop onto the carpeting afterwards. By the sound it made, she could tell Seto had thrown a book at her.

"OW! KAIBA!" she yelled.

"Gardner, I would appreciate it if you would save your daydreaming for later," Seto stated who was off the chair and standing up again, "Right now, I need answers." Tea rubbed her nose that had been left sensitive after the book attack. Even though Seto was smaller and cute, he was still one big aching thorn in her side. "Now, what did this girl look like?"

"Ugh… Okay… If I remembered correctly she had long black hair and silver eyes. I think she was about a few years older than the body you're in now."

"And she gave you that necklace as a gift for helping."

"Uhh… yes."

"Anything else I should know?" Seto asked. Tea shook her head.

"That's all I know about where it came from. She just… handed it out."

"Hm… How can I be sure you're not holding back a few vital facts."

"Kaiba! That's all I know about the stone. Trust me, I want you out of this house as badly as you do," Tea said. Seto being somewhat disappointed, sighed to the lack of valuable information he was given

"That really narrows things down," he growled sarcastically, "So where did you put the rock shards of that accursed necklace?"

"They're upstairs sitting on my dresser," Tea answered. At the spot, Seto whipped around and started in the direction of the staircase. As he walked Tea couldn't hold it in anymore. Her clothes from childhood were just too special and he was definitely not the one to trust.

"Kaiba, wait," she called getting up from the sofa.

"What?"

"Before you get started on that maybe we should go out and do a little shopping."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you still need some fitting shoes and socks."

"You can forget it, Gardner. I don't intend to leave this house until I get back in my normal body," Seto said, "I'm not planning on staying in this body for long either." He then started up the stairs. Tea wasn't going to let him go that easily, however.

"Huh? ACK! What do you think you're doing?" he complained being suddenly grabbed by the back of his shirt.

"Look, we're going shopping and that's final."

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Sorry for slightly lying about the next chapter preview. I didn't know this morning part would be so long. Anyway… this time for real…

**Next chapter… For real…**

It's shopping time for Seto and Tea, plus some fun with Tristen. -evil look-


	8. Let's Go Shopping

OKAY! THE KERU IS BACK! Sorry about the late update. Writer's block plus lazy reviser makes things a bit difficult. Thanks for the reviews! Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter, as I have nothing else to say.

And Yu-Gi-Oh still doesn't belong to me.

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**Chapter 8 -Let's Go Shopping  
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The mall was fairly quiet as people started to open their stores and shops to get ready for business. It was still a bit early but eager customers were already walking up and down the walkways searching for their favorite stores. Voices vibrated off the walls and carried through the building, causing echoes to fill its massive structure. As the mall was still comparatively quiet, one could actually hear the trickling water of several of the mall's beautiful fountains and the occasional clacking of high heels across the tiled floors.

"I can't believe this…" mumbled Seto as he was dragged along by Tea who kept a firm grip on his wrist. It wasn't like he could do much else though. For him, being little was seriously becoming more than a mere pain in the neck. So far he had found out that he was vulnerable, short, and now physically weak enough to fall to anybody else's whim. It was becoming torture.

"Yeah, yeah. We all know your not enjoying it," Tea sighed.

"Oh, how perceptive of you to notice. Now if only you could do that when telling the difference between fantasy and reality," Seto answered.

"In other words, decide that I'm hallucinating every time something supernatural happens? I think I'll pass," Tea replied, still calmly dragging him along. Seto was quiet for a while, that is until the pulling, yanking, and dragging him to keep up with her stride began to wear him out. His new little legs were beginning to ache.

"I don't know if you're aware of this, but I would appreciate it if you would let go of me," he growled trying to pull his wrist out of her firm grasp. It wasn't much avail, however. Her grip on him was still iron solid.

"Well, we can't have you straying off now, can we," Tea teased. The truth was however, she was still slightly concerned about him. People would be surprised how easily a small little boy like him could get abducted, even in public. The fact that this particular little boy was quite appealing with his big eyes but had a go wherever I want, do whatever I want attitude, made this situation more worrisome for Tea.

"For the last time, Gardner. I am not a child," Seto said, "As hard as it may be for you to comprehend, I know how to take care of myself and I do not need to be babysat. Especially not by you."

"I know, but the last time I checked, you still needed shelter and protection," Tea said, "And that's what I'm offering. Just take it as favor already."

"I'll take it as a favor when you let go of my wrist," said Seto.

"Look, if you can just wait until we get into one of the shops, I'll let go. Besides, no matter how much you may hate it, this actually helps you blend in."

"I don't need to blend in, Gardner. Just let go of my wrist."

"I am NOT letting go of your wrist."

"Gardner! Do you hear me? I demand that you let go of me IMMEDIATELY!" Due to the volume and tension in Seto's voice, a few people turned their heads in curiosity to see what the problem was. Tea noticed them and immediately slapped a hand over the little CEO's mouth. Funny, even as a 5-year-old boy he's an attention grabber. However, in the position they were in, the last thing she needed was suspicious bystanders.

"Kaiba, would you stop it? You're attracting attention," Tea whispered, kneeling down to his level.

"Mmf…" was the only thing Seto could reply with. Tea looked up and saw a lot of the viewers had lost interest but a few had stopped to stare as she tried to keep her hand over the mouth of the struggling Kaiba.

"Heh heh… Oh… Don't mind him," Tea said to reassure the remaining spectators, "He's just a little bit…cranky… today." Her confident nonchalance with her explanation was convincing. Knowing how kids can be and being somewhat apprehensive of getting 'involved', the people shrugged it off and wandered off to continue with their shopping. Thus, leaving Tea and Seto in the clear. Tea removed her hand from Seto's mouth and watched him wipe his face like Tea had gotten cooties on him.

"Don't you dare try that again," he warned her.

"Look Kaiba, I know it may be hard for _you_ to comprehend, knowing your ego problem, but the last thing we need right now is people gawking at us."

"Don't you think I know that?" he returned, "Look, I highly doubt any sane person in the world would believe I was turned into a kid. Even if they thought they did recognize me, what would they do to help me? No one would believe it."

"Great, if you want to be that laid back about it, go ahead. After all,

it isn't really my reputation at stake," Tea said standing up again, "Anyway, we should get going. The sooner we get this over with, the happier I'm sure we'll both be." Tea started walking again and like before, she dragged Seto by the wrist. Again, Seto did not take this kindly.

"Gardner… Let go of my wrist…"

"I am not letting go, Kaiba."

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"Heh heh, there it is," a certain pencil-haired brunette said with excitement, "Checkers… the place housing the tastiest omelet known to man. Oh, I can't wait." Tristan's mouth began to water at a mental image of the deliciously warm and soft scrambled egg wrapped around cheese, ham, sausage, and other tasty ingredients. He had only tried it once before, a long time ago, but from what he remembered it was the most heavenly delicious breakfast he ever had.

Of course, he was feeling rather special today. It was the start of a nice vacation, Serenity was on her way to Dominoe, and well… something about this day just felt really good. So what else do you do an exciting day like this?

It wasn't long before the manager showed up and unlocked the doors to prepare for business. Being as excited as he was, Tristan didn't even wait for the manager to get away from the door before he strode in, therefore accidentally shoving the door into the poor guy.

The restaurant itself was decorated rather nicely with warm colors and golden oaks, just like he remembered it. A couple of softly lit fish tanks filled with exotic fish brightened up sections of the room while cozy wall sconces lit up the rest. A few employees that had came in walked back and forth getting the leftover tables set with napkins and eating utensils.

Tristan walked up to a red-haired waitress standing behind the register. She sloppily chewed her gum while fingering through the latest Teeny Bop magazine. This girl was supposed to be much older than that but apparently she hadn't matured over the years.

"Um… Hello?" Tristan nervously asked her. She looked up at him and noticing her first customer, groaned angrily. The waitress flopped down her magazine onto the waiting desk and reached for the menus.

"How many?" she asked dully.

"Uhh… One…" Tristan answered.

"Table or booth?"

"Booth."

"Okaaay… Right this way sir," she told Tristan escorting him to the nearest booth and tossing a menu onto the table. Sarcastically she added, "Wow… that was like sooooo… hard."

"Er… Right," Tristan said, sitting down. He hadn't even eaten yet and he was already questioning how high of a tip he should give her. This girl must have left her enthusiasm at home or something.

"What would you like to drink?" she continued with the dull tone, pulling out a pen and notepad.

"Orange juice sounds fine."

"One orange juice…"

"Oh, and I've already figured out what I want to order if that's okay," Tristen said leaning back in the seat. The girl didn't say anything and instead looked at him with a hurry-up-already-you-loser look. "Er… I'll have the Angel Omelet with toast…" he said, eyeing the picture of his dish. She wrote it down and took a step to walk off when she was stopped by his voice, "Wait, I'm not done yet…"

"Hm?"

"I'll also have the Deluxe Hotcakes with maple syrup, and the Full House, and the Bacon Burger, and the Cinnamon Buns, and the…"

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"Come on, aren't they adorable?" Tea said holding up a pair of little white teeny shoes with duel monsters on them.

"Gardner, how long is it going take you to understand that I'm not going wear any of that idiotic rubbish?" asked Seto as he scanned through the shelves of little boys' shoes. The two had decided to start their shopping at Priceless Shoes due to Tea's lack of her childhood socks and shoes. You can only imagine how ridiculous Seto looked wearing his own now oversized shoes on the way to mall. It also didn't help much that they had easily slipped off his feet several times.

Unfortunately for him though, most of the shoes they were looking through were embarrassingly childish. They had either pictures of popular manga heroes printed on their sides, possessed Velcro straps, or contained soles that lit up with every step. It was safe to say that Seto was on the verge of pulling his hair out with all the kiddy footwear littering the shelves.

"Aww… but I thought you liked Duel Monsters," Tea teased.

"I do… but not on my feet. Look, if you're not going to help I suggest you be quiet so I can search in peace and without your constant kiddy jokes."

"Fine, fine," Tea said putting back the shoes holding a smile. Meanwhile, Seto continued to look up and down the stock. He was beginning to suggest going to a different shoe store. The shoes that fit him here were all ridiculous. Seto didn't like cartoons, he knew how to tie his shoes, and walking with flashing light bulb glued to your foot was plain idiotic. After a while it was starting to get dull. "Hey Kaiba, I'll see if I can ask an employee for other shoes they may have in your size," Tea finally suggested, "Just stay here and keep looking."

"Like I have anything else to do?" Seto added sarcastically. He watched Tea walk away and disappear around the aisle before he sighed with relief. Seto knew it would only be for a minute or two but nevertheless she was away from him. Not to mention, he cherished his time alone. Seto went back to searching the shelves when suddenly, to his luck, he spotted a small pair of shiny black formal shoes. They were just like his oversized shoes that he was wearing except they were the perfect size for his smaller feet. He eagerly reached over to snatch them when they were suddenly yanked out of his reach.

"HUH?"

"Wow, these shoes are perfect!" squealed an eight-year old brunette girl squeezing the shoebox tightly. Seto was shocked. How dare she simply come in and steal the shoes right out of his grasp. He quickly threw off his surprise and looked up at her with his famous death glare. Nobody gets in the way between him and his desires.

"Excuse me, but I believe those shoes belong to me," he said in a dangerous tone, trying to look as threatening as possible. The girl looked down at him and blinked in bewilderment. She hadn't even noticed he was there until he said something. However, the girl needed those shoes and wasn't about to hand over the shoes to this twerp.

"Hmph. I don't see your name on them," she puffed.

"And I don't see yours on them either," he returned. The girl showed him a nasty scowl for the comment.

"Look little boy, go find some Robot Hero shoes or something! My little brother needs these shoes because we're going to a wedding tomorrow," she yelled. Seto was unfazed, however.

"You'll need to visit another store then," Seto said stepping calmly forward, "Because I'm not planning to leave this store without those shoes."

"What are you going to do get them? Cry to mommy?" the girl mocked. Seto observed his surroundings for split second then smirked. He couldn't charge right into her. That would be a waste of time seeing she was still quite a bit bigger than he was. Not only that, but he didn't like to perform unnecessary violence for stupid reasons. Besides, his opponent was only a naïve eight-year-old. He'll take back the shoes in no time.

"Here, why don't we make bet," Seto said taking two shoeboxes off the shelves. He set them down in front of him and put their covers on them, "Don't worry, this won't be too hard. Simply cover the box to the shoes we both want and sit them next to these. I'll arrange the boxes around and you'll pick from one." Indeed, the boxes he sat down didn't have any unique qualities. "If the box holds the formal shoes they're yours. If the box doesn't hold them you get another guess and get to choose from the remaining two. However, if you guess wrong again the shoes are mine."

"And why should I agree to this? I found these shoes first and I'm already holding them," remarked the girl.

"Of course… you don't have to agree to this if you're not up to it," explained Seto looking extremely relaxed, "but I must say, that's pretty pathetic to be backing down from a little kindergartner like myself. I mean, even the chances are on your side."

"Mommy said we needed these shoes for my little brother and I'm going to get them," she said clenching the shoebox tightly.

"Oh, I see. Little mommy's girl aren't you," Seto said mischievously.

"Am not!"

"Then why aren't you going to prove it and stand up to a little challenge like this?" he asked. The girl clenched her teeth. She already held the shoebox and she could just as easily walk away. However, this twerp was asking for it and she wasn't going to run away from a baby.

She puffed up a bit then shouted, "Fine, but this better not take too long!" She closed the lid over the formal shoes then plopped the shoebox next to the ones sitting on the floor.

"Okay, these boxes are pretty big and I won't be able to move them real quickly so I'll ask you to turn around."

"No way! How do I know you won't snatch the box and run off as soon as I turn around?" she asked.

"Hm, You're right. How about we do it this way then?" Seto said. The girl kept her eyes on him as Seto stacked all three boxes on top of each other and carried them to one of the shelves where he sat them down on the floor. He then stood directly between the girl and the boxes to hide them. It was a close shot due to the fact the boxes were pretty wide but he hid them, nonetheless. After a few seconds of shuffling and swapping he turned around and laid the boxes before the little girl.

The little girl looked at each box carefully. This had turned into a game of pure luck but she was confident she'd get them back.

"Okay… I choose that one," she said pointing at the box on the right. Seto opened the box for her to reveal a pair of red sneakers with Velcro straps.

"Oops… Wrong one," Seto said smirking.

"What?" she gasped.

"Try again?" the little trickster asked, "You only have two more left."

"Fine, I choose the middle one," she barked. Seto opened the box and to her shock it didn't hold the pair of black formal shoes she needed.

"NO WAY!" she cried.

"Aww… Too bad… Looks like I win," Seto said picking up the last box.

"That's not fair! You cheated!"

"And I how could I have cheated?"

"Uh… Well… Uh…" she stuttered.

"I'll be going then," Seto said walking away with the box. The girl wasn't going to let him get away that easily, though. Sure she lost the game but she was still bigger than he was and she still wanted those shoes. This problem can be solved by force.

"THOSE SHOES BELONG TO MY BROTHER!" She yelled as she ran after him and tackled him to the ground. The closed box went flying out of Seto's hands and slid smoothly on the shop carpeting. It stopped only a few feet away from the two before the girl got off him and snagged it. She stuck her tongue out at him for a brief second then dashed off.

Seto was dazed a bit by her attack but slowly got up and regained his smirk.

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The girl excitedly ran all the way to her mother looking through a different aisle.

"MOM! MOM!" she chirped jumping up and down, "I got the shoes."

"Hmm… Well, let's see them," she replied taking the box from her. She opened them and after a moment of staring she shook her head. "Tina, I told you… No sneakers," her mother said giving them back. Indeed, two cartoon-covered sneakers replaced the formal shoes that should've been there.

"B-But…" she stuttered as shock and anger took over her.

"Put this back and go find some nice formal shoes," she continued. Without hesitance the girl whipped around and blasted off in blind fury.

"I'm going to get that little boy!"

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Now that was over with Seto pulled the black formal shoes out of the shelf. Just as he thought, the girl was too young and naïve to notice the trick he pulled while shuffling the shoes. The prize was his and it was time to get out of this dump. Seto walked out of the aisle and began to search for Tea. To his luck, he spotted her right away waiting by the checkout desk, apparently waiting for the cashier to return. He started to walk to her when he heard shrill scream.

"You're dead!" screamed the gullible little girl as she charged right at him.

"Great," Seto mumbled. Truthfully, he was hoping that girl wouldn't catch on so soon. Before he could say another word he was tackled to the ground in fury of grabby hands.

"Those shoes belong to my brother," she shrieked.

"Oh really? I guess it's too bad he's not getting them," Seto replied rebounding from the tackle and fighting back. Then it turned into a mess of kicking, punching, rolling, shrieking, and huffing.

The racket the little girl made was enough to make almost everybody in store turn their heads, including Tea's.

"Huh?" Tea gasped. Her eyes reached the loud little girl. She seemed to be fussing with some younger kid. A closer look and Tea soon realized that younger kid was her shrink victim. "Now what did he do?"

Even though the girl was a bit bigger than Seto she was no fighter as she wildly flailed on him. Her moves were predictable and easy to manipulate for Seto. It wasn't long before she found herself bruised and hurt, without a single shard of fight left in her. Her rival stood proud and tall before her and he hadn't even broken a sweat.

"You should have been careful of who you decided to mess with. Looks can be deceiving," he said rubbing the box of the formal shoes in his hands. The smug look on his face was wiped off his face when a shadow fell over him.

"What did you do now?" a scolding voice hissed from behind him. Seto turned around and looked up at the person interrupting his success. He found Tea towering over him with an angry stare pointed at him. However, Seto like always, didn't cower or shrink in front of her anger. He simply walked around her in the direction of the checkout desk.

"I found the shoes I'm getting," he stated not looking back.

"What about this little girl?" Tea asked furiously. The little girl Seto had fought with was now curled on the floor crying.

"She got in the way," Seto explained.

"I-I only wanted th-those shoes b-because my b-brother need-needed them for a w-wedding," she whimpered, "Th-those were the last p-pair."

Seto stopped and took a look around. He was starting to regret what he had done. Not because he made that little girl cry like most might like to believe but because he had made a ruckus. Many eyes in the shop were directed at them, filled with sympathy for both kids while a few directed disgusted looks at him. Not only that, but it was certain he wasn't going to get what he wanted. Tea was no doubt on the little girl's side like the majority.

"Give me those shoes," Tea demanded stepping forward against him. Seto knew the shoes were a lost cause. He appeared to be a little brat to everybody. In other words, he did not have the advantage of fear or respect from these people. Seto had absolutely no control over this situation as much as he hated to admit it. And he **HATED** to admit it.

"I get it, Gardner," Seto said. As he hissed in frustrated rage, he tossed the box onto the floor in front of Tea's feet, "There. Happy?"

After that he headed out of the store leaving the drama show it had turned out to be. Tea groaned and picked up the shoebox. Gently she handed it to the little girl who was still shivering and sniffling on the floor. The girl didn't say a word but continued to sniffle as she held the box.

"Oh there you are," said an employee balancing several shoeboxes as he came out of the aisles to greet Tea, "It turns out we have quite a few pairs of shoes fitting the description you wanted. If you would like to-"

Tea snatched the top box of the stack and held it up.

"We're getting this one," she said adamantly.

"Wha-What? But wouldn't you like to at least look at it? Or fit it or… or… something?" the employee asked in shock.

"……………… No."

"By the way, did I miss something?"

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Tristan walked out of the restaurant, belly full, and content. The final bill had been a bit breathtaking but all the food had been scrumptious… The waitress still could've have used some work though. He could've sworn she called him an anorexic pig when she walked off to serve the other customers.

Tristan was set for the exit out of the mall until he heard some soft sniffling.

"Hm?" the teenager turned around and found a sad little girl sitting on a bench. She had black hair, silver eyes, and in her arms she tightly squeezed a cute white kitty plushie…

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OMG! It's her…! Yeah everybody knew that. All I can tell you now is that Tristan is going to have a really bad day. Funny how I'm using a totally ignored character for some key torture.

**Kay… Next Chapter…**

Tea soon realizes that Seto didn't simply walk out of the store. While looking for him Tristan is also having some issues with a lost little kid separated from her mother. Yep, she may have looked cute and innocent in the first chapter but she turns out to be quite the moocher for poor Tristan.


	9. UNICORN MAN

Man, I need to get my act together. I'm becoming lazy with the updates again. Ugh, okay… must keep it together until the Seto torture with Joey part.

Anyway, welcome back to another chapter of Kiddy Degrade. This took a while to write but for the record ((It's a little extra long too)), but I think it's the funniest yet. Thanks to reviewers for keeping me going and making me feel special ((n00bs on Gaia can't do that))! Also, I'd give away free stuff again, but the shipping truck is taking a while to get here so umm… Lollipop?

Yu-Gi-Oh is not © to me. Get it straight, people!

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**Chapter 9 - UNICORN MAN  
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Being who he was Tristan couldn't stand to see a little girl sob and whimper. He looked around to see if she had any parents or older siblings nearby that could comfort her. However, the section of the mall they were in was dead empty without a single person in sight. With this in mind he decided to take this situation into his hands and find what was wrong with her.

"Hey," he called softly walking over to her. She shakily looked up from her kitty plushie to see the owner of the voice.

"Huh?"

"What are you doing here all alone?" Tristan asked bending over slightly.

"I-I w-was separated from my m-mommy," she whimpered.

"Then why didn't you ask for help? I'm sure one of the mall security guards would help you find your mommy," he told her.

"All th-the security-ty guards are busy."

"And what are they busy with?"

"S-something about coffee and donuts," she recalled. A sweat drop rolled down the back of Tristan's head. He just had to wonder with the waitress and now security guards, what kind of people this mall hired. It was either that or overall humanity had sunk a few notches. Well, he wasn't about to let that hurt this helpless, naïve little girl.

"Hey, don't cry. I'll help you find your parents," Tristan declared. The little girl pulled down her tear covered plushie toy and looked up at him with hope.

"R-really?" she sobbed.

"Yeah," Tristan said cheerfully. She sniffed once more than smiled.

"O-okay."

"What does your mommy look like?"

"Well… She's tall, she's a grown up, and she's a lady," the girl described. There was a moment of silence. "And… we have the same skin tone!"

"Uh… Right…" Tristan said, baffled at her "detailed" profile.

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Meanwhile, on the other side of the mall Seto was leaned up against a trashcan, cross-armed, and waiting for Tea to exit the shoe store.

The recent events were jumbled in his mind. How low did that stone sink him? First, he had to stand on a chair to get his coffee (which was a waste of time in the end), then Tea forcefully dragged him to this mall against his will, and now at the mall he had to defend himself from getting mauled… by an **eight-year-old**! And that was only a small sample of the torture and humiliation. Truthfully, this transformation had trashed his superior identity! He shouldn't have to climb for his coffee, he shouldn't have to go wherever somebody else wants him to, he shouldn't have to fight an eight-year-old for a pair of formal shoes! Thanks to that rock, it seemed he was no longer duelist champion and ruthless CEO, Mr. Kaiba. He was now just a an annoying little twerp with cranky disposition.

Nevertheless, Seto still turned his back to all of this. He wasn't going to let this idiotic five-year-old body drive him insane, oh no. He was going to get back into his real body, back into to his real life, and make the ones responsible for his personal humiliation pay.

Seto soon spotted Tea walking out of the store holding a plastic Priceless store bag. The sharp points and edges that carved into it's plastic revealed to him that it no doubt held a shoebox. He calmly waited as Tea approached him in a rather stiff manner. The expression on her face was none too friendly either.

"Hm. About time," he said letting his arms drop to his sides as he headed to her, "Now, let me see what rubbish you decided to get."

"I can't believe you, Kaiba," Tea hissed at him, "That little girl only wanted those formal shoes because her little brother need them for a wedding."

"That girl you saw was a stupid naïve little brat who happened to get in my way."

"That is not the point, Kaiba!"

"Look, I don't know what your view point is with you and your 'friendship' speeches," Seto replied, "But do I look like I care about what my opponent needs? If I want something, I'm going to get it. Opponents are just a pitiful obstacle standing in the way of my desires. As a matter of fact, I can hardly believe I wasted my time on that stupid kid. She was small game and I would've gotten what I wanted easily. That was… until you showed up…"

"Aww… Did I ruin your little 'game' when I came in? Well, maybe that's because you can't treat everyone like dirt, Kaiba!"

"They only bring it upon themselves, Gardner. When people aren't strong enough to get what they want, they deserve to be treated like so. Now, are you going to stand there and lecture me to death or are you going to hand over those shoes?"

Tea was disgusted at his perspective and reluctant to do as he wanted, but she gave in and dropped the bag…out of his reach. Seto sighed but ended up walking over and snatching it up. He carried it in the direction of the nearest bench.

"That kid transformation didn't change you one bit," Tea said with scorn, "I thought maybe being a little kid's body would give you a new perspective on things. Boy, was I wrong."

Seto ignored her remark to crawl onto the bench. However, he didn't take much time making himself comfortable before mocking what she had said.

"Heh… Did I hear that correctly? You actually believed I would turn into a simpering sweetness twit all of sudden just because I was 'magically' turned into a kid?"

Tea clenched her teeth staring at his disdainful smirk and mocking eyes.

"Oh please," he ended. Seto then, without another thought, tore through the plastic bag and cardboard box to his shoes. He held up the shoes by their laces with a somewhat disappointed look. There wasn't anything kiddy about the shoes except maybe the slightly bold colors, but they were low middleclass **_sneakers_**. After losing the formal shoes to a child, that fact left him a little bit sore. Still, Seto didn't make much of fuss about one unlucky draw. He let the black oversized formal shoes swallowing his feet slide off and put the new shoes on. After replacing his footwear he slid off the bench to test them out. Surprisingly, despite the rubber soles and non-formal appearance, they were the perfect size and actually did feel quite comfortable. "Hmph, I was hoping for something less…common, but I guess these will have to do."

"Geez, you say it as though it was an offering."

"And it wasn't?"

Tea gave him a nasty look then shook her head.

"Ugh… Let's get this shopping over with so we can get back home and do whatever we please. I don't know how much more I can take of you."

"Wow, you finally came up with a 'decent' idea."

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Tristan was now starting to regret being so caring. Once the little girl he chose to help got over her tears she was unbelievably chatty…a regular motor mouth.

"When I was six, my mommy gave me a hamster but it died, so my mommy got me a gerbil. Did you know an average hamster's life span is three years? Neither did I. A big dog told me," she rambled as she skipped next to him.

"Uhh…"

"Speaking of dogs, Mr. Snuggles hates dogs because they try to eat him but I know that not all dogs are bad. This one time I met a dog that licked my face and played with me. I think people are the same way too!"

Tristan tried to hide his discontent as best as he could but it was getting harder and harder to maintain his act. This little girl was starting to make him wish she came with an on/off switch. _'Okay, just stay cool. I only have to find her mother and I'll be done.'_

"-he may be selfish and uncaring, but I think he only needs a time out. Besides, I'm sure he's having a lot of fun right now. Oh, and there was another grown up person I met who was a jerk. He was mean. He took Mr. Snuggles away!"

Tristan eventually decided he had to do something, quick. This girl was like motorboat malfunction royal. Her endless talk was slowly sapping away his good day.

"A nice lady helped me. Oh and this one time my mom met a salesperson but he was actually a shark! My mother would have been eaten if she bought one of his cars. And then-"

"Hey, little girl?" Tristan asked, interrupting her chatter.

"Yes?" she said in a cheerful tone.

"We're did you last see you're mom, again?"

"In Spheres!"

"Okay! Just double checking," Tristan said. The girl had finally gave up on chattering and he sighed out of relief. That was better… until…

"By the way, mister," the little girl chirped.

"Huh?"

"Why is you're hair pointy?"

"Er… Well… That's because…"

"Are you a unicorn?"

"No, I just-"

"Unicorn man!"

"Whoa, I am not a-"

"Unicorn man! Unicorn man!" the girl chanted.

"You haven't by chance eaten anything lately containing the word 'sugar,' have you?"

"Hey, miss lady miss!" the little girl called to a nearby shopper, "I'm walking with a unicorn!" She then turned to another nearby shopper and repeated, "I'm walking with a unicorn!"

It was official, Tristan was going to lose his sanity soon if he didn't get the child to shut up.

"Little girl?" the pointy haired teenager said tapping her on the shoulder.

"Yes, Mr. Unicorn?"

"Sorry, but I am not…"

"A unicorn?"

"Exactly. I understand you could get it mixed up but…" Tristan stopped. He was now looking down at a little girl with giant tears welling up in her eyes.

"Y-You're not a unicorn?"

Tristan gulped. This wasn't the result he wanted. He had to think of something quick before he was labeled as a jerk to people around him. Fortunately, he was able to think of the thing just in time. He bent over and pulled her close to whisper in her ear.

"Yes, I am a unicorn, but I cannot reveal my identity," Tristan whispered.

"Huh? Why?" the child asked.

"Because the evil aliens from the planet… uhh…." Tristan continued, pausing to search for a believable name, "Sportingtons are trying to find me so they can steal my magic."

"Really?"

"Yes" The dark haired grade school student stood there, quiet, at this new bit of information. However, after registering the information that she was 'trusted' with…

"WAAAHHH! I AM SO SORRY MR. UNICORN! I revealed your identity! I am a bad girl! I deserve no desert for a week! WAAAAAHHHH!" she blurted out so loud almost the entire mall could hear.

Tristan was going to collapse. He really hated being such a nice guy at times.

"What have we done Mr. Snuggles?" she screamed.

Speaking of nice guys…

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"Here," Seto said as he uncaringly shoved a combination of shirts and pants into Tea's stomach, "I'm getting these."

"What now? Feel you're too good to even try on clothes before you buy them?" she asked angrily as she took the clothes from him.

"You said you wanted to hurry this up and that's what I plan to do," Seto replied going through another rack of shirts. Tea took a deep breath trying to shake off her frustration. Indeed, it was taking her time to relax over Seto's little fight back at the shoe shop, and more of his rotten attitude was hardly helping.

As Seto flipped through the hangers Tea looked down at the four outfits that were shoved into her. All of them had bland colors and were barely flashy. Of course, that was the way Seto wanted them to be. Anything flashy in his size would most likely either contain a picture of Robot Hero or have a teddy bear on it. While examining them, Tea took a curious look at the price tags and at the sight her heart nearly froze.

"Kaiba! These shirts are over $70 (Sorry, don't know what that is in Yen) each!" Tea squeaked.

"And there's a problem?" Seto asked looking over his shoulder at Tea.

"I can't afford that!"

"… Oh, that's right. Sorry, I forgot you lived in poverty."

"I do not live in poverty! I may not be as rich as you but I'm not poor either! Ever heard of middle class!"

"Is there a difference?" Seto asked in a bored tone of voice, going back to his search.

"Ugh. I am not getting the clothes, Kaiba!" Tea shouted. Seto stopped his search once again and turned around to give Tea an unconcerned look.

"Fine… If it's that a big of deal, I'll write you a check to make up for it when we get back to your house and I can access to my wallet."

"What? Is that your solution?" Tea hissed.

"Do you have a better idea?" Seto asked. Tea trembled with fury but kept to herself. The truth was she did have a better idea, but she knew Kaiba would only mock her for it. In the end, she let her rage take over.

"Fine… Just keep you're dirty money," she said in a low disgusted voice.

"Hmph, suit yourself." With that, Seto calmly went back to his rummaging. Tea let out a furious sigh. She decided to look away from Seto for the time being to get him off her mind. The unlucky teenager viewed the other shoppers in the department. Unlike her they seemed like they were having the time of their lives. Of course, Tea would have joined them too if she didn't have chibi 'Mr. Heartless' to watch. She looked down at the fancy carpeted floor in gloom. Oh where were her friends at a time like this?

Seto was thankful that much of the clothes before him didn't have bold colors or stupid cartoons on them. Still, he was left unimpressed by the store's selection. Then again, he was the kind that preferred personal tailoring over store brand. Even though he didn't speak of it, he enjoyed clothes that not only made him look superior, but eccentric. Like there was much of that there.

Suddenly, he spotted an interesting long-sleeved shirt hanging on a wall display. "Hm?" He walked up to it to take a better look. The sharp colors of white, black, and silver were embedded in a unique, but not complex design. The best part was it seemed to be the prefect size for him. Seto intrigued by the top, stretched a hand out to take it off its rack but than a recurring problem harassed him once more… his short stature. "Damn it!" he swore as his fingertips brushed the bottom of its fabric.

Tea wasn't paying attention to the little problem Seto encountered. She was much too focused on other parts of the store to clear her mind. Many of the other displays she could see from her point were covered in fabulous clothes ranging in mini-skirts to sweaters. Before Tea knew it, temptation was nagging her by the bottom of her shirt. There were so many beautiful things she was interested in trying on. She looked back at Seto who was now standing in front of the wall display apparently still looking for some more clothes and ignoring her. That confirmed it. Tea simply needed a break from him, to relax and do what she wanted to do. At least it would be better than standing there like she was some faithful servant to him. Plus, he could handle himself for a few minutes without requiring her help, right? So while the little CEO wasn't looking, she left him to see the store's wide variety of clothing.

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"Okay, according to the map Spheres should be right… here," Tristan said placing a finger on the small yellow square in the corner of the bulletin, "And we are right here so we're almost there."

"YAY!" the little girl squealed, hopping up and down excitedly. Tristan smiled. He was almost as excited as her, but not for the same reasons. It was looking forward to finally getting the girl off his shoulders (not literally) so he could go home and take a break.

"Okay, I have a feeling we're going to find your mother soon. Let's go," Tristan said. He started walking in the direction of Spheres only to realize the little girl wasn't following him. He looked over his shoulder to see the lost little girl standing there with her eyes glued on a soda machine. "O-o-o-oh no."

"WE WANT SODA!" she screamed referring to herself and Mr. Snuggles.

"Err… Don't you think we should try to find your mom first?"

"But me and Mr. Snuggles want soda!"

"Come on, I'll promise to tell your mom to get you soda when we find her."

"But we want it now!" the little girl cried. Tears started to well up in her eyes, yet again.

_'Oh man, not this again…_' Tristan mentally groaned. The girl was starting to whimper and was squeezing her plush kitty tight. Once again, Tristan was a slave for the puppy dog eyes. "Okay, okay," Tristan said giving in, "but don't tell your mother." She sniffed a little bit and looked up to him.

"O-Okay," she replied. The teenager dug through his pocket and pulled out a crisp dollar bill (still don't know what that is in Yen). He fed the bill into the machine and pressed a button. Seconds later a bottle of fresh fizzy Mr. Fizzle dropped down.

"Here," Tristan said handing it to the little girl. Her eyes started to well up again. "Huh? What's the matter?"

"Th-this is Mr. Fizzle. I wanted Cuco Cola!"

"Come on, just try it. I guarantee you'll love it," Tristan reassured.

"But I'm allergic to Mr. Fizzle!"

"Oh… Heh… Oops…" Tristan humbly said. The girl was about to burst into tears and Tristan knew he couldn't stand it. He took out another dollar bill and fed it into the machine. "Don't cry. It's okay, I'll get you a Cuco Cola." And once again a bottle fell down and he gave it to the little girl.

"There…" The little girl quietly stared at the bottle for a second before she resumed her sobbing.

"W-What? What now? I got the right soda, didn't I?" Tristan asked nervously.

"But this is DIET Cuco Cola!" she cried. Tristan simply stood there twitching before he did the classic anime collapse and twitched even the more.

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The lack of height was nothing a couple of nearby boxes couldn't solve. It didn't take Seto long to get the shirt into his hands. Now that he had gotten his prize he decided that he chose enough clothes to last him. Truthfully, Tea was only wasting her money by getting him these clothes. As soon as he returned to the house, Seto knew he was going find out that wretched gem's puzzle. He would be back at his full state soon, and no later. Besides, he would rather eat a bucket full of insects than spend another night in Tea's house and in this puny body.

He turned around to set up their departure when to his surprise, he found that Tea was no longer in sight. He started searching around the children section for her, in case she decided to play another one of her kiddy jokes. Yet, in the end, it was clear Tea had disappeared. Seto felt his blood temperature rise. He definitely didn't like this sudden ditching and sneered, "Gardner, where are you?" To no surprise, his call was not answered. He waited for a second to inspect his surroundings. She didn't seem to be hiding anywhere. "This better not be another one of your kiddy jokes," he growled and elevated his search beyond the children's section.

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Tea, on the other hand was having a blast. After dropping Seto's chosen clothes on a nearby sweater rack, it was girl time! She dug right through the display of miniskirts and tops that hung before her. The girl experimented and toyed with all sorts of styles and outfits there was to choose from. Some of the styles she chose matched her perfectly, some of the styles looked terrible, and some were so-so. Before she knew it Tea had completely forgotten about Seto and her troubles to let the fun take her away.

"Excuse me," Tea called to nearby employee organizing the shirts.

"How may I help you?" she asked.

"Do you have this in my size?" Tea continued, holding up a beautifully decorated miniskirt.

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Seto's first target was the women's section, of course. He knew very well that Tea could have strayed off to do her own shopping. When he reached the section though, he froze in his tracks. There were the tons of displays covered with light baby colors, fancy girlish designs, and fake crystals. At this, Seto started to rethink how much he needed Tea right now. I mean, this was the 'girls' section after all. Even though there was probably not a soul in the store besides Tea who recognized him that didn't change the fact he was still a boy. Age didn't matter in stuff like this. The factor of not finding Tea in the girls' section and going in for nothing definitely wasn't in his interest. Even worse would be the factor of Tea finding _him _searching around the girls' section.

And thinking of this, it didn't take him long to decide. Without hesitation he moved on and away from the girls' section to search other parts of the store first. However, as cruel irony would have it, Tea had only been feet away from Seto going through one of the sleeveless top displays. Also as more cruel irony would have it, just after Seto left to search the rest of the store, Tea had realized she had spent a minute too long enjoying herself.

"Oh no, I forgot about Kaiba!" she yelled to herself. She hung the shirt back on the display and shot out of the girls' section to check on Seto. She had remained a bit furious at Seto from his attitude, but she knew he was her responsibility, like it or not. It was her job to make sure he was safe.

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The store itself was amazingly extensive and filled with clothes, furniture, and other junk. With all this, it could easily be called a maze. However, for our cute little CEO, the store posed no threat to navigate even though he couldn't see over the top of anything. As a matter of fact, he had way more problems with the people who worked there. Thus, he had another reason for hating his new body.

Back and forth, he paced and searched among the racks and shelves for Tea. Still there was no sign of her…anywhere. It was only a matter of time before his unsupervised quest attracted the attention of a young employee with long wavy brown hair and earrings. She watched him for a few minutes in curiosity before she becoming worried.

"Little boy?" she called, but due to the fact Seto had not gotten used to being called by little boy, he did not catch on to her immediately. "Little boy?" she repeated. Seto turned this time realizing the fact that he was the only little boy around at the moment.

"What?" he said disdainfully.

"What do you think you're doing?" the employee asked.

"I'm searching for somebody," Seto briefly replied. His feet then started to carry him off again to check another part of the store. Nevertheless, the worker didn't let him leave so fast.

"Oh, you poor thing. Are you lost?" she asked kneeling to his eye level after blocking his way. Seto glared at her but kept his cursing to himself.

"No, I'm just searching for a teenage girl with short brown hair and wearing the smallest miniskirt in the world," he abruptly replied . What displeased Seto more was that his comment fell on half-deaf ears. He hated not being shown the respect that was his due.

"JAMIE!" the Sphere's worker shouted.

"What?" a voice came from the other side of a pant rack.

"There's a cute lost little one searching for his mommy."

"Excuse me?" Seto growled, "I am not-" Sadly, he was sharply interrupted by the awe of the employee's friend. She had long blond hair, green eyes, and was equally decorated with jewelry.

"Aww… Poor thing…" she cooed.

"I saw him pacing up and down the aisles trying to find his mommy," Seto's finder continued.

"Are you deaf? I told you-" Seto started once more only to be interrupted yet again.

"Oh, he's so small. How old do you think he is?"

"Hmm… I think he's about three."

"What?"

"There, there," the employee called Jamie cooed as she pulled Seto into her chest for a hug, "It's okay." Seto was tolerant of this for a second, but it was only a second. He hated being touched by anybody that wasn't his little brother. From that you could guess, he didn't take this hug so kindly. Especially, when the person hugging him believed he was a scared little tot. "We'll find your mother!"

"Do I look like a stuffed animal to you? Don't touch me!" Seto shouted fiercely, pushing himself away from her. There was little resistance to deal with as the lady immediately released him in shock.

"Oh my, I'm sorry," she apologized, "I scared you didn't I." Seto felt his body begin to shiver out of fury. This girl wasn't getting the picture. Still, rather than dealing further with this pair of idiots, he began to walk off again without saying a single word. Then, for a second time that day, he was stopped. "Wait, little boy!"

_'Oh god…' _Seto thought still suppressing his rage at the entire situation.

"I'm sorry for scaring you. Don't go off on your own. You might get lost," she said cheerfully.

"Don't worry, we'll help you find your mommy," her friend concluded.

"You're not getting the point are you? The person I'm looking for is not my _mommy _and I can handle myself just fine!" Seto snapped.

"Aww… Isn't that so adorable? He's trying to act all grown up," Jamie cooed. An anime blood vessel showed up on Seto's head. What was wrong with these people? Couldn't they tell an insult from a cry for help?

"You know what? Now that I think about it, he looks like that that rich guy… What was his name again? It started with a K," the oblivious friend asked. Seto tensed up fearing the girls had just recognized him.

"Kaiba?" the other employee asked.

"No, that wasn't it… OH, now I remember! He looks like Kaname, that hansom pop singer!"

"Oh yeah!" she chirped. Seto was about to collapse. He never paid any attention to music or any media besides gaming. Yet, he already knew he looked nothing like Kaname, whoever the heck he was. While the two clueless ladies babbled on about how great Kaname was, Seto made his getaway. He was almost at the end of the section when the employees realized he had disappeared. Seeing him at the edge of their department, the brown haired one called, "Little boy, where are you going? Come back!"

"Like I'm going to do that?" Seto asked, as his attention remained focused in front of him. Not a minute after he said that, he could here footsteps coming up behind him. They were coming after him. As much as he hated running from stupid situations like this, he did not want to be the teddy bear for a couple of cooing imbeciles. In simple terms… he bolted.

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And that wraps it up! Thanks for reading! Also, I hope to work on Going Crazy ((The Mutt, the Neko, and the Richboy)). I already have about half of the first chapter done. I'm also hoping to update Squirrel Stole My Checkbook. I got most of its new chapter done. : 3 I don't know whether this would be overkill for somebody like me, but I'm planning writing a new fanfiction called "Pi Are Round."

Anyway, curious question, does anybody know where Seto got those cool moves in the Noa's Virtual Arc? A joke has sprung among my friends and me about him being a secret agent. Still, that would be awesome if he actually was indeed a secret agent. Poor Seto, though. In my fanfiction he'd have to save the world as a 5-year-old.

**Okay, next chapter…**

Yay! It's Pacman! Only Yu-Gi-Oh style with Seto and the two stupid girls!

Plus, more Tristen torture.


	10. PacKid

Okays, I've updated. Anyway, I've worked a tiny bit more on my other fanfictions and should hope to get them up soon. Oh, and more news I drew pictures for Kiddy Degrade. I might post the urls to them on my profile later.

By the way, I was invited to be staff of a C2 group. It apparently collects stories with pairings of Yugi x Serenity, Joey x Izishu, and **SETO x TEA**. Check it out if you want. You can get to it by going to my profile and checking my C groups.

Well, to the point, thanks for reading and reviewing. -hands out Photoshops- It's paint program. ENJOY IT! They're expensive!

Still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

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**Chapter 10 - PacKid**  
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**Tp, tp, tp, tp…**

Two little feet tapped against the fancy white walkways of Spheres. They swerved their owner left and right to dodge the shoppers that could mess up his escape. And that was the last thing he needed. The consumers that stood in his way were left stunned, barely dodging the young brown-haired boy, as he blasted right through them. Some of them even lost their balance and crashed into the displays. However, if he didn't take the shoppers by surprise, the two idiotic girls recklessly chasing after him did.

"Little boy… Come back here…!" screamed the blonde one dodging in and out of the obstacles, mobile and not. Of course, the little boy didn't obey her command and kept on racing like a monster was chasing him.

Seto was astonished, simply astonished. He had overestimated the duo's logic. The girls had already revealed that they were morons, but not a chance did he think they would go running after him. Right now, they were clumsily bumping into people and knocking down displays just to catch him, a single _'unfortunate'_ lost kid. Those two were solid evidence of why Seto usually didn't care too much about helping other people. They were making complete fools of themselves.

Seto sprung off the tiled path into one of the sections for a sudden change of direction. There was no doubt in his mind that he needed to get rid of them. He wouldn't be able to locate Gardner so smoothly if he was being chased all around the store. However, getting them off his trail was proving to be much easier said than done. Those sales clerks may be bumbling morons, but they were surprisingly dexterous at keeping on his trail. Still, Seto was not going to bear putting up with them for who knows how long. Not to mention, this running was wrinkling the shirt he wanted to get.

In attempt to throw them off he started weaving in and out of the displays like a fox being hunted by hounds. With his new small stature it turned out to be very effective. The employees trying to hunt him down had much more difficulty keeping him in sight and within grabbing distance.

"Please stop, little boy. We were just trying to help," Jamie desperately called looking this way and that for him.

"Look, we can't leave you unattended. It's one of the store's rules," her friend added.

Seto nearly growled from behind one of the T-shirt displays. As he watched the duo search for him without a clue to what they were doing, he began to wonder why he had to deal with these incompetents.

"Yoohoo! Little boy?"

"Oh… did we lose him?"

When their backs were turned Seto saw his chance. He started creeping pass them to make it out of the section completely. Unluckily, the blonde employee spotted his outline before he could grasp the boundaries of the department.

"Oh, there you are!" she chirped sweetly and jogged towards him.

"Don't you two have 'anything' better to do?" Seto asked, before realizing it was utterly useless. The girl kept charging towards him with a goofy smile and arms spread out to grab him. Seto did an about face to run again. Suddenly, her accomplice jumped only inches in front of him and grabbed for him. They had him caught… or so they thought. At that moment Seto pulled off something he himself thought he'd never do. He ran through the startled brunette's legs and in a mad attempt to catch him the employee had lost her balance. She fell face first on the carpet tripping up her friend in the process.

Seto halted and looked at the tangled mess behind him. "Humph… Imbeciles…" he muttered as they squeaked and squealed. Seto turned to make his get away. Unfortunately, he still wasn't in the clear just yet. The girls he had just tripped up hastily untangled themselves and amazingly (considering their bulk) they quickly resumed their pursuit. Seto snarled in frustration as once again he found himself running in and out of the racks to escape their loving embraces…

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They were finally in Spheres, he and the little moocher. Tristan sighed out of relief for his small accomplishment. Maybe now the child he was helping would shut up. It was highly unlikely, though. Giving her soda was the biggest mistake Tristan had ever made on his part. The little girl was hyper enough to begin with. How could he have been so stupid to give her a caffeine filled drink? Now it took everything in his power to keep the little girl from bouncing off the walls.

"Ooh, lookattheallskirtsMrSnuggles! There'sarainbowoneandapinkoneandablueone," she rambled pointing at the cute skirt displays.

"Okay, now that we're here, if you see your mother let me know," Tristan told the bouncy child, managing to keep his calm.

"OKAY!" she squealed. As he walked through the store the pointy haired teenager raised on eyebrow at the fallen displays and frazzled customers.

"Man, what happened here?" he asked.

"Ooh-what-a-mess. I-bet-it-was-the-boogie-man-who-came-through-here," the plushie keeper suggested at a slower but still incredibly speedy pace.

"Well, I guess the good part of that is we won't have too much trouble searching for your mom," Tristan sighed. "Anyway, let's get moving…"

"YAY! T-shirts!" he suddenly heard her squeaky little voice ring.

"Huh?" Tristan whipped his head around to check on the girl and what she was doing. Only a few minutes in the store and she was already dashing to the little girl's section to dig through outfits. Of course, Tristan couldn't have that. He immediately came after her. "Whoa no, we are not doing any shopping."

As he attempted to tear the girl off the skirt rack a cool Hawaiian melody played on the speakers. It soon broke into a fun beat that lit up the general mood of the store. Despite that though, it didn't do much for the startled shoppers, fallen displays, and a certain teenage girl.

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Tea ran all over the little boys department searching for Seto. She was surprised that he had disappeared so quickly. Now guilt was starting to fill her mind again. Tea felt ashamed of herself for acting stupid, like a dumb teenybopper no less. She should have known that leaving him alone for even a minute would cause trouble.

After a brief moment of searching she thought of three possibilities that could have happened to him. First, he could still be shopping, unaware that she left him. In truth, she was hoping for that one because the second possibility resulted in him looking for her. He'd most likely be ticked off that she ditched him and Tea didn't feel like going into another fight with him. However, those two were heaven compared to the third and last possibility, which Tea hardly wanted to think about.

Suddenly, her ears caught the sound of something crashing not too far from her position. It wasn't for certain but somehow she just knew Seto was involved. Immediately she headed to the crash zone.

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It was amazing how persevering those idiots were. Seto had tried so many tricks to lose them. Swerving, sudden movements, knocking nearby items into their path as he ran by. This distracted them briefly but didn't lose them. They were even oblivious to what the actions were doing to the store. There were piles of clothes and hangers spilled out onto the floor along with jewelry boxes and plastic dummies. Despite this the mess wasn't too bad… yet…

Not too far away, Tristan had finally removed the hyped up girl from the clothes displays.

"Okay, do not do that! We are here to find your mother only," he huffed.

"Aww…" the little girl whined.

"Come on, you can do shopping after you find your mother."

"But-"

"Just come on," he said grabbing her gently by the hand and leading her away from the displays. But something else caught her attention. It only took a few minutes to seep in before the little girl caught onto Seto's unfortunate nearby little tag game, mess and all. She whipped out a finger and directed it at the three.

"OH LOOK! It's-Seto-Kaiba!" she squealed jumping up and down. Tristan, being caught off guard for a second, reflexively looked in the direction the child pointed.

"What? Kaiba?" he asked. The only thing he saw, however, was a small boy being chased around by two klutzy shopping clerks. "Oh, real funny," Tristan said sarcastically.

Seto, still leading the chase, narrowly brushed a sunglasses' display only for the two behind him to crash into it and send the spectacles flying everywhere. The destruction didn't end there, though. Seto doubled around and ran in the other direction. He slid under a table showing off many different perfumes and brands and continued. The girls who were right on his track collided with the table causing it to fall over with them. Glass shattered and the expensive designer perfumes were spilled all over the floor. Nevertheless, the girls jumped to their feet and kept on running after him. To this Seto smirked. As he became more aware of the carnage that the chase was leaving in its wake, he began to realize what this would mean for the two clerks when their managers found out how they had handled this situation. They were toast. With this new thought, Seto actually starting to get amused at the situation instead of enraged. He deliberately ran around yet another unsuspecting shopper and let the girls' clumsiness do the rest.

"KYAAA!" the shopper screamed before being accidentally tackled into a display. The force caused the display to be knocked over with the unlucky shopper but the two girls were unharmed.

"Little boy, come back here!" they continued to plead. It fell on deaf ears as Seto kept leading them around the store and they kept running into things.

Tristan just watched the show from afar with intense curiosity. "What the heck?" he said blinking in astonishment.

The little kid being chased then pulled off another crash by skimming by the edge of a shopping cart which the two pursuing clerks inadvertently sent rolling into a display presenting a group of dummies. Most of them only vibrated at the impact but the one that fell down caused a chain reaction. All the models were knocked to the ground and the ones in the back toppled onto a group of innocent shoppers. More startled screams were heard. Seto continued running but with a triumphant smirk on his face. At least if he was captured by the clueless duo, they would be fired for store destruction and consumer injury.

"Well, I guess that explains why the store's a mess," Tristan sighed. At that moment Seto saw another cruel opportunity. A wrinkled old lady using a walker to get around had stopped to look at some shirts. It was a tight fit but Seto dashed through the tiny space between the lady and her supporting walker.

"Huh?" The senior curiously watched Seto as he dashed off. "What a peculiar young boy," she said to herself, unaware of the trap he had set. She didn't remain clueless for long, though.

"AH! LOOK OUT!" screamed Jamie as she and her friend tried to move out of the way. It was a second too late. Both she and her friend rammed into the poor elder and ran her over. "SORRY!" the brunette employee apologized back to the twitching old lady, still continuing without heed. Those two were definitely too stupid to get their priorities straight, thought Seto as he continued the game.

At this Tristan decided to leave before the idiots were possibly lead over to him. "Er… Why don't we go look in a different department…" he suggested as he gently grabbed the plushie bearer's hand and escorted her away from this dangerous and chaotic area. In the end, he didn't escort her fast enough. Seto soon ran pass him and the little girl.

"Uh oh…" Tristan gulped, not daring to look behind him. He knew what was coming.

The little girl on the other hand, took no time to stay with Tristan after noticing Seto's pursuers.

"KYAAAAAA!" she screamed running out of Tristan's grip and joining Seto, both trying to outrun the pair.

"Oh man…" he groaned. This was gonna hurt… and it did. The mad employees not only knocked him onto the ground, hard, they ran over the top of him, trampling him thoroughly.

"Sorry," the clerk apologized yet again, ahead of him and still running.

Just right after the chase moved to another section of the store, Tea walked into the area. She noticed the scattered sunglasses, the shattered perfume bottles, and the knocked over displays, dummies, and tables. To add to this lovely scenery was a bunch of groaning bystanders that were found either lying on the ground or struggling to stand up.

The teenager walked over to help one of them up. Once he got to his feet Tea asked the victim, "Excuse me, but what exactly happened here?"

"These two crazy girls blasted through here chasing some unfortunate kid. They crashed practically into everything including me! Auh…" he groaned.

"What did that kid look like?" Tea continued.

"I think he had brown hair and was wearing a red and yellow panda T-shirt," the guy explained. Tea's heart sunk. She knew it.

"Where did they go?"

"How am I supposed to know. I was knocked onto the floor before I had a chance to blink."

"Oh…Er… thanks anyway…" Tea replied. With that, she ran off once more looking for Seto.

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At first, Seto was too focused on his surroundings to notice the newcomer. However, that changed very quickly with another one of the little girl's high-pitched screams.

"KYAAAAAAAH!"

"Huh?" He looked back at her, keeping his pace.

"-AAH… Hi!" she briefly greeted. Seto gave her a quizzical stare. For some reason she seemed to be important but he couldn't quite recall what it was while running. He had to concentrate on his breathing pattern and continuing this new game of destruction.

"Another kid?" one of the chasers asked.

"Oh great. We'll have to catch that one as well."

"Okay… Stop running, we're not going to hurt you."

"With what you're planning to do I'm actually starting to think pain would be better," Seto stated.

"JUST STOP RUNNING!" she screamed. He heard a powerful yell come from behind him. Without a second thought Seto hopped to his left just before a lunging employee tried to take him down. Not only did he manage to dupe her but the little girl had jumped out of the way as well. Both were left unscathed as the poor clerk tumbled over the carpet and crashed into a pyramid of shoeboxes. Her brown-haired accomplice was still hot on their track though.

"Don't worry, Jamie! I'll get them! Now you little brats, I've had enough of you!" she hissed, "I have lots of work to do and I can't have you running around the store reckless, unsupervised, and bumping into people and destroying stuff.

"So you failed to notice who was actually crashing into all those displays? I am sure the store's security cameras will bear out the truth.

"AM-NOT!" the child next to Seto retorted. She accidentally slowed down a bit by saying this thus, causing her to barely escape on outstretched hand. "KYAAH!" she squeaked, picking her speed back up.

"Get back here!" the clerk snapped. For now, Seto was ignoring the little girl next to him to focus on his chaser. He was amused and enjoyed the fact that the tables were turned and now SHE was the one who was enraged at the chase. Then however, he started to feel uneasy. She seemed to be gaining on him. It was either because rage was driving her forward or his little legs couldn't take the running anymore. Enough playtime, he needed to get rid of her. The question was how. What was the one place he could go that she couldn't? He looked slightly to his right and saw the answer. It wasn't the most flattering way to lose the employee, nor was it the best. Still, it would buy him some time and he would finally be able to take a break. He broke off the path once again and ran for the bathrooms.

While doing that, he sped up and swerved into the small tiled section. Immediately he dashed through the closest door. Taking a look around he recognized the mirrors, the stalls, and the puddle covered floors. He took a deep breath. Hopefully, he should be safe from the crazy clerk as long as she didn't decide to barge into a men's bathroom.

"Good riddance," he said in success.

"HELLO!" a high-pitched voice suddenly greeted from behind him. He turned around and saw the little girl that had been running with him. She squeezed her toy kitty tightly and a huge grin lit up her face. Seto raised an eyebrow.

"What are you doing in here?" he asked half-heartedly.

"I-followed-you! You-do-know-she's-going-to-capture-us-in-here-don't-you?"

"Are you saying she would go into a men's…" Seto went silent. Something wasn't right. Now that he actually had time to think, the air reeked of perfume. Since when did men wear cologne? Looking around the room he saw a few particular things that shouldn't have been there and noticed things that should have been there but weren't. He summed this all down to one word…"AUGH!" With his face flaming he blasted out of the bathroom so quickly track racers would be amazed. That didn't work out so perfect however, as he was instantly snatched up by the collar.

"HAH! Gotcha!" she said with a sickening grin, "Hm… You've been a very naughty little boy haven't you. Now this time I'm turning you into a security guard. We'll let him handle your mischief." Seto growled. His day had gone from bad to worse in only a few minutes. He probably looked like a brat to everybody, he lost sight of the only person who recognized him, he was chased around by two store clerks, he had accidentally slipped into the wrong bathroom, now this lady captured him and was treating him, Seto Kaiba, like some naive lost two-year-old. That does it. Time to regain control of this situation.

"Fine, you caught me" he calmly admitted crossing his arms with his smug expression.

"Now lets find that security guard…"

"You go ahead and do that. Still… It won't change the little remodeling job you and your friend did with the store."

"Huh? What are you talking about now?"

"Take a look around," Seto said. The brunette did what she was told and viewed her surroundings. Everywhere she looked there were displays and dummies knocked over. Thousands of tiny glass particles now littered the walkways from perfume bottles and other products. There was stock ranging in boxes to hair products all spread out on the floor. The clerk's mouth dropped in horror. She had been too caught up in the chase to realize what they had been doing to the store.

"MR. SNUGGLES! ATTACK!" a certain young female screamed. At that moment, late if not on time, a soft kitty plush toy flew into the already stunned women's face.

"WAAAAHHH!" she shrieked, immediately releasing Seto.

"That's better," said Seto. With that he strode off and left the imbecile to drown in her own simple-mindedness. However, it didn't take long for the clerk to throw the little toy off her face and reveal a pair of flaming eyes. There was no doubt she was going to be fired when her boss saw the security cameras. Not to mention, she had looked like a fool to all her customers and fellow employees. She had no dignity left and there was only one thing on her mind. REVENGE!

"YOU BRAT! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" she yelled as she whipped around and sped off after him faster than ever. The little girl picked up Mr. Snuggles and was about to come after but found herself seized by the wrist.

"Finally… I found you…"

She looked back to see Tristan and immediately she started pulling on his grip.

"Please Mr. Pointy Head, let go! I have to help that little boy!"

"Don't worry about that. I'm sure the store clerk is very nice despite her and friend's… clumsiness. He'll be okay. Besides, we came here to find your mother didn't we?"

"NO! Let go of me!" she shrieked.

"Look, little girl. We're going to continue this search. I don't know what the deal is with the clerk but it's none of our business. Just come on."

"LET GO!" she screamed.

"Just come on, already!"

"NOOOOO!"

"Umm… Sir, what are you doing?" a dark haired women with green eyes asked walking up next to him. Tristan kept his hold on the struggling child but stared into her eyes.

"We're searching for a certain someone," Tristan said eyeing the flailing kid.

"Oh, I'm sure you are," she said in an angrier tone, "You know that isn't a very smart cover up for a kidnapper."

"Hey, I'm not a kidnapper. Who are you to decide that?" Tristan growled back. The little girl he was holding suddenly stopped struggling and looked back at their situation. Noticing a familiar face she made a big smile.

"Hi, mommy!" she chirped. Tristan's pupils shrank. The girl never did give a good description of her mother. For this reason Tristan knew he had worked himself into a heap of trouble. In desperation he tried to prevent conflict by explaining the situation. Too bad it wasn't before she took out the pepper spray.

FSSHHH!

"AH!" Tristan yelped covering his eyes. The lady then proceeded to beat him to the ground with her purse while her little daughter just idly watched the show.

"How dare you grab my daughter like that you filthy, wretched-"

"AH! Geez, lady. I was only-AH!"

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Tea was finally fed up with searching. She needed to get some more help. For this she ran over to the closest shopper she could find and asked them, "Ma'am, have you seen a small brown haired boy wearing a panda T-shirt come by here?"

"I'm sorry," she replied shaking her head. Tea let out a sigh of defeat and looked down at her feet. This shopping trip had been a total and complete disaster. So disastrous that Tea regretted taking little Seto to the mall. Sure, her childhood clothes were special, but maybe they still would have been the best thing to use in the end. Oh, she didn't know what was better right now.

"But I have," another voice called out to her. Tea looked back up and found herself staring into the droopy eyes of an old aging man.

"You have?" Tea asked lightening up.

"Yep, he walked by here just a while ago. He went in the direction of the store escalators," the senior told her, already pointing a finger to the right of Tea. She thanked him in an extremely grateful but overwhelmed manner then ran off.

_'Oh, please be there,'_ Tea hoped.

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Seto had resumed his search for Tea. He couldn't seem to find her on this floor so he decided to check the downstairs part of the store. With some help coming from signs he worked his way to the escalator. Nevertheless, it seemed he couldn't get that far in anything without some problem.

"THERE YOU ARE, YOU LITTLE BRAT!" he heard a voice scream behind him. Seconds later a mad employee burst forth from the knocked over displays charging right at him.

"Do you ever take a break?" Seto asked.

"RAWR!"

"Guess not," Seto nonchalantly finished before dashing off once more.

"I'M GOING TO BREAK THAT LITTLE NECK OF YOURS!" she yelled coming straight after him. This time, Seto found it to be very challenging to keep ahead of her. He tried to run as fast as he could but his legs were already sore from the last run and this girl was really riled up. To his dismay more troubles were added to his dilemma as he heard another familiar voice.

"Okay, there you are," said a sickeningly sweet blonde employee racing toward him.

"You're kidding…" Seto growled. He struggled to keep the chase on but he soon met a dead end. The escalator. He barely regained his balance before tripping on the up escalator he had inadvertently ran to. Below him the escalator lifted shoppers, completely filling up its narrow path and behind him the store employees slowly moved in.

"Come on, little boy. We're not going to hurt you," the blonde one said as she took a step.

"Forget that, Jamie. This punk probably made us lose our jobs," her friend stated.

"What?"

"Look around!"

"Oh my…" the blonde gasped doing so.

"And it's all this kid's fault."

"I still wasn't the one crashing into the displays. You two decided that you HAD to help me even though I didn't request help, nor did I need it. If you're going to blame something I suggest you try blaming your lack of common sense," Seto said holding his ground. He was in the perfect place to get rid of them but he had to act quickly.

"Why you…"

"So I take it you two are just going to stand there, staring."

"You're going to regret saying those words, you little twerp," the brunette yelled charging forth.

"Jamie, no! Be gentle with him," the blonde said coming right after her.

"Hmph, perfect," Seto said smirking. The demented employee lunged out two hands to grab him but met air as Seto ducked and pushed forward into her knees. Due to the clerk's momentum the nudge was just the thing. She tumbled forward over him and down the escalator. Screams and thuds were heard as she collided with the unfortunate shoppers coming up. The fun didn't end there however, when her ditzy friend, Jamie, failed to stop in time as well. Yet, more shrieks, screaming, and panic came from behind Seto.

He turned around with a sly grin. "Oops.." he chuckled impishly. The area now before him was a total wreck. People were tangled, entwined, shrieking, and screaming, as they all tried to get up at once. "Hmph… idiots." Now that they were taken care of, Seto needed to get back to business. He moved over to use the down escalator but…

"Kaib-… I mean Kai!" Seto heard a familiar feminine voice call.

"Hm?" Seto immediately stopped in his tracks to look back at the brown haired teenager trotting up to him.

"Phew, I finally found you," Tea sighed bending over to take a breather.

"So you finally show up," Seto said, glaring at her, "About time."

"Look, I'm sorry I ran off. I was planning on just being gone for a few minutes to look at a few things."

"Whatever. Here," Seto said shoving the shirt he had been dragging around all this time into Tea's stomach. "We're leaving this rat hole." Tea groaned. It didn't matter whether she lost him or found him. She still suffered. Why her?

The two walked off unaware that the tangled heap Seto had caused had now made it to the top of the escalator.

"Ow, your foot's still in my face!"

"Kyaaa!"

"What kind of store is this?"

"By the way," Seto broke out ignoring the noise behind him, "Where did you put those clothes I told you to get?" Tea swallowed at the reminder. When she realized she spent too long in the girl's section she panicked and forgot all about his new expensive clothes. She couldn't even recall where she left them.

"Err…" was the only thing that left her throat.

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"Let that be a lesson to you about grabbing my innocent daughter!" the dark haired lady shouted throwing an empty can of pepper spray on a beaten Tristan.

"Augh!" he moaned in agony.

"Hey mommy," the kitty holder finally said.

"Yes?"

"He wasn't a kidnapper. That was the nice man who helped me look for you."

"What?"

"He is, he helped me all the way here."

"Oh sure…" Tristan groaned, "Tell your mother after she beats me up and uses all her pepper spray on me."

"But… He had grabbed you."

"That's because he didn't want me running off to a help a little boy being chased around by a mean lady." The little girl's mother turned pink out of complete embarrassment.

"Oh my, I am so so so so so sorry. If you had just said something I would've… I am sooooo sorry!" she apologized, humbly.

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Okay, there you have it. Next chapter Tristan finds Tea and causes some problems for Seto. Will he be able to come up with a name.

Okay, okay… Since I'm having a bit of a problem here. Would you help me choose a nickname? I'd prefer it to be Japanese but original. If you can't think of anything, it's okay. I'll think of something myself…

By the way, why is everybody convinced this will be an azureshipping fanfiction? I know I like the pairing and I have a tendacy to lean on it in writing but did I say there would be a pairing? Lol, ah well, who cares? I guess I will make this into Tea x Seto pairing eventually so it's okay.


	11. Yukio the Cute

Um... Here's the chapter I finishe monthes ago and nver got to load it... DON'T KILL ME! I GOT IDEAS NOW!

And I haven't been on in a while but not I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

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**Chapter 11 - Yukio the Cute**  
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People came and people went. It was just another day in the mall for many as they strode about the stores with huge paper bags weighing down their shoulders. The fellow shoppers that passed by, the chatters and noises echoing, and the freshly baked scents of the food court were all too familiar. Among all these ordinary day-to-day events it would be hard to imagine anybody having the most bizarre and unnatural time of their life. That goes especially in a mall. However, even though unnoticed, a certain pair was experiencing just that.

A vanilla white paper bag crackled in beat to two hot-pink platforms as they stepped out onto the glowing tile. Not far behind them Seto followed with both hands hidden in the depths of his pockets and an irritated stare emitting from his deep blue eyes. A yellow smiley face sticker was now resting on his cute little cheek and beamed up at any shopper who had the time to look down. Occasionally, a few of the girls would coo and point at him like he was some puppy at a pet shop. Seto took a moment to coldly glance at some of them but they would continue to be mesmerized by his winsome face and ignoring his stormy expression. After realizing it was a lost battle, Seto mostly kept his eyes ahead of him and his mind focused on what was really important at the moment.

"Idiot cashier…" he mumbled, whipping his fingers out to strip the jolly circle off his face. Not long after, the smiley met its fate in a nearby trashcan.

"Come on, you know looked adorable with it," Tea joked, towering next to him as they walked. Her tone was much quieter than before, however. The wear and tear of their earlier experiences had finally taken their toll and now she wanted nothing more than to get home and kick back.

"Oh really? Then I suggest you enjoy it while it lasts because as soon as we get back to your house I'm getting out of this worthless body," Seto replied.

"Yeah, yeah, we heard it all before," Tea moaned, "Here!" Before her little pest could even respond, that same cream colored carrier which was once lying in her hands bounced off his fluffy brown head. A matrix of bland colors and clothing fabric spilled out next to him, onto the filthy, sole-trampled, floor. With this he paused and took time to stare at his newly bought clothes littered on the floor. Then casually, he looked back up at Tea who had came to a stop as well.

"Are you always this annoying or am I getting the special treatment?" Seto asked sarcastically.

"Trust me Kaiba, if I was always that _annoying_, you'd know," Tea remarked.

"Whatever," he muttered back in reply. He bent over and one by one, the child-sized shirts and shorts on the ground were laid into his arm. After recollecting all of his new attire and shoving them back into the fancy paper bag, he grabbed it by the handles and continued on his way. It could have been a moment of hilarity, but Tea only sighed and shook her head. The paper bag that she dropped on his head stood a little above his waist and just like his briefcase, he was dragging it, the oddest looking pull toy.

"And he blames people for calling him cute," Tea whispered to herself, with a smile before catching up.

It wasn't even about a foot of travel before they reached their destination. Before the doors labeled, 'men' and 'women' Tea flopped down onto a nearby bench and began the wait. The quicker Seto went in, and got changed, the sooner her treasured childhood clothes would be safe… hopefully. Seto remained fixed in his spot, shooting her a testy look. She groaned, "What now?"

"How can I be sure you won't run off to go on another shopping spree while I'm changing?" he replied rather sullenly.

"Wow, since when did you start caring?"

"Since you and your 'magic pebble' put me back in childhood." With that, the little prodigy tugged the bag over and headed for the men's bathroom without looking back. "And I don't plan on searching the entire building for you." Yet, despite Seto's already grumpy attitude, Tea found reason to pick at his weak spot.

"Aww… What's wrong? Feeling a bit… helpless?" Tea teased. The hair on Seto's neck stood up at the impact of that comment. It was a bee sting right to the mind. How dare a geek like her call him, the great CEO of Kaiba Corp, helpless. Sure, it was somewhat true but that only hardened the blow. Instantly, he returned his attention to the person who dared to make fun of him with rage burning in his large icy blue eyes.

"Listen Gardner," he angrily snapped, "you may think I'm like some pathetic little doll for you to play with now, but mark my words. When I return to rightful state of being, I'm making sure you regret the day you crossed paths with me!"

"Umm… lady?" a soft, low voice suddenly interrupted Seto's tirade.

"Huh?" Seto looked over his shoulder to find a young black-haired stranger behind him and staring at Tea with concern.

"Is there something wrong with your kid?" the man asked pointing down at Seto. A sweat-drop rolled down Tea's head and a fake smile formed across her lips to reassure the witness.

"Umm… don't mind him. You know what chocolate plus over-active imagination equals…" she lied, adding in a weak laugh at the end. The guy nodded limply in response and kept his mouth shut, thinking it better not to ask any more questions. After the odd stranger finally disappeared around a nearby corner, Seto glared at Tea with the ferocity of a hungry wolf. Well… at least tried to. He pointed a finger out and opened his mouth to combat Tea's actions but alas, he was at a loss for words. Reluctant to realize he was defeated, he dropped his free hand back to his side, turned around, and pushed through the metal door of the men's bathroom.

"Hmph… Over-active imagination is it…?" Tea heard his little voice grumble, before it was shut off by the click of the lock. Now the only things echoing in her ears were far-off voices and anonymous mystery noises. Letting out a sigh of relief, Tea seemed to deflate on the bench. May as well make these ten minutes of liberation count.

Her eyes drifted upwards to stare at the skylight above her and let her mind run free. Before long, she wasn't even in the mall anymore. She was at the amusement park with her friends. It was everything she could imagine from a trip as such. Yugi was staring at the map trying to get things organized, Tristan was digging into a large freshly baked pretzel, and Joey was begging and pulling them like a little kid to go on the park's biggest thrill-ride. _'Like a little kid…'_ she repeated in her mind. Suddenly, her mind wondered back to the shrunken CEO and her school report. Her joyride ended at the thoughts with an abrupt stop and she was back in the mall.

Tea buried her forehead into her hand and moaned, "I wonder if anybody is having a great of time as I am." Surprisingly, a strange familiar voice replied to her words.

"Depends, with or without the pepper spray?" it asked. Tea jolted her head up instantaneously to locate speaker and what she saw stunned her. Two familiar brown but bloodshot eyes were staring lazily at her belonging to none other than...

"Tristan?" she gasped, straightening her slouching at the surprise.

"I'm surprised to see you too," the point-haired interloper said collapsing onto the cold metal next to her.

"What are you doing here?" she exclaimed, lurching at him, "And… What happened to you?"

"I came here for breakfast and… you don't want to know. Still, I think the question is what are YOU doing here? I thought you had a report to work on," he said eyeing Tea suspiciously with a hint of slyness, "You're not putting off the make up work are you?"

"Oh yeah, like I would be careless enough follow Joey's example," Tea replied, crossing her arms. Although her tone was filled with sarcasm there was a rising sense of panic in her chest. It only intensified when her friend's interrogation continued.

"Then what are you doing at the mall? Researching the POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE?" Tristan shouted curling his fingers to form fists of anger. Tea blinked a bit startled by his sudden outburst. "Huh? Oh sorry, I guess I got carried away… but really, what are you doing here?" This was the one question that put the ice on Tea. Oh, the comedy it would be, if she explained to him now, that she was babysitting the CEO of Kaiba Corp. Irony had taken hold of her situation. As much as she wanted to see her friends that moment ago, this definitely wasn't what she had in mind.

"Uh… Well…" she stuttered trying to think of an excuse. Eventually she fell to her lack of a creative reply and ended up sighing, "You don't want to know, either." Tristan cocked his head in curiosity, but after that statement he didn't question her further. Instead he rubbed his sore pepper stained eyes and lay back on the bench.

"Fine, if you say so," he said. As the pointy haired teenager sat there Tea grew uneasy. Seto was coming out of that door sooner or later and with Tristan around that wasn't in her best interest. Unlike many of the strangers around Tristan had seen the victim multiple times before the necklace accident. It would only take one spark of recognition to let the cat out of the bag. Tea had to do something, or at least try.

"Um… Tristan, I don't mean to intrude, but you do look worn out. Shouldn't you go home and rest?" she asked.

"Ah, don't worry about this Tea. I had worse, besides it wouldn't hurt to keep you company for the time being would it? You must have had a rough start by the look of it?"

"Uh… Well… I…" Tea found herself to be in an awkward position. All morning she had been putting up with Seto's dry remarks and criticisms. Now, that she actually had a friend that cared for her and shared her bad morning, she had a chance to relax. However, that didn't change the fact that Seto's identity could be exposed. If that happened there's no telling of the size of the headache she'll get from Seto's fit for revealing his identity. If only she had some time to…

"Alright Gardner, we're finished here," said that strong but small voice. A shiver went down Tea's spine and slowly she turned her head to behold her fate. Seto was standing only a few feet away from her. The cute little panda top and green shorts had been replaced with gray camouflage shorts and a certain eccentric white and black shirt. All that was left was the giant shopping bag still clenched in his tiny hand. Although his attire wasn't as kiddy anymore, it surprisingly didn't make him any less adorable. What did make him less adorable was the time and environment he chose to emerge from the bathroom in.

_'No! Ugh…. Kaiba, you have the worst timing…' _Tea yelled in her head.Unfortunately for her, even as the self-proclaimed genius Seto was, he wasn't psychic.

"Unless you want to go on another of your idiotic _shopping sprees_, we're done here. The sooner I get back to that dump you call home the sooner I get ch-" Seto sharply stopped at catching the sight of another 'geek' who to be blunt, was staring at him with the most confused look on his face. Seto felt his heart dive bomb and his throat caught in a loop. Unsteadily, he backed up a few notches, trying to avoid eye contact with this sudden newcomer. He knew this person and surely, this person knew him. The only thing standing in between was a thin line of disguise called Seto's recently puny state. He felt the anger dig in. He knew who was to blame.

"You just can't live an hour without your precious friends by your side can you, Gardner…" he mumbled throwing icy daggers at Tea from the corner of his eye.

"Uh… Tea… who's…" Tristan asked. He took a hard solid look at Seto and penetrated his already cracking shell. "Hey… wait a minute…That hairstyle… those eyes… You're…" Tea tensed, listening to his every word as though played on slow motion. She had to do something! Barely thinking, she sprung off the black mesh bench leopard-style and wrung her arms around the munchkin. Leaving Seto stunned at her sudden action, he had little time to focus or fight before she swept him up like stuffed doll.

"Gardner, what are you-AH!"

"It's not what it looks like!" Tea laughed nervously. The tension through the troubled girl's arms begged to differ though, while Seto gasped for air in his new uncomfortable location.

"Um… He was the little boy I saw being chased at Spheres?" Tristan corrected. Tea stayed in her position blinking at this misinterpreted answer. Her arms and shoulders loosened as the blood flushed up to her cheeks. Sluggishly, she lowered her head to look down at what she had just done. Seto's face had been forced into her chest and the only movement he could manage in her grip was the furious kicking of his feet. A droplet of sweat slipped down her head and her mind almost shattered. She couldn't believe she did something as insane as that. Humbly, Tea unwrapped her arms and let a very pissed off Seto drop to the floor.

If Seto had the chance he would've expressed his pent up anger right then and there but in a situation like this, it could wait. A new set of eyes was on him and looking him over to every single detail. That time, the fortunate klutz managed to escape with a simple, "Don't… do that again."

Tristan was left vexed at this entire situation and gawked at both Tea and the supposed little boy. First he had to deal with an annoying little girl, then two crazy shopping clerks trampled him, then the little girl's mother pepper sprayed him to death, then this happens. Was it national 'Act Like a Nut' day? Somehow, from all this, he pulled himself together and calmly asked, "Just what is going on? Tea, who is that kid and why is he with you?" Tea tensed again and looked down at Seto, trying to come up with answer.

"Er… He's my…" she fumbled, "… cousin!"

"HE'S YOUR WHAT!?" Tristan exclaimed, jumping forward.

"Your cousin?" Seto even added in disgust of the thought. Tea immediately slapped her hands onto his face to muffle the _sweet_ little words coming out of his mouth and continued with her act.

"Yep, it was really sudden. My aunt showed up last evening telling me she was going on a business trip. She couldn't take him along and because his father died, she needed somebody to look after him for a while," she continued, as bullets poured down her forehead.

"Mmmm Mmmf!" Seto uttered correspondingly. Taking in this new information, Tristan took another deep look at the little boy entranced in thought.

"Hm… Now that you mention it, you do look a lot alike."

"HMM?" squeaked Seto from under the coverage of Tea's hands. Even Tea was a bit surprised at this answer, but didn't dare speak a word out of place.

"Yep. I guess if you didn't know better you'd think he was my little brother," she laughed weakly.

"So… What is the little guy's name?" Tristan finally asked.

"Kai-" she started. Suddenly, a weak but swift heel kick to the shin stopped her at the edge of the cliff. She gulped and quickly attempted to redress the accident, "I mean… His name is…" She dug hard and deep into her mind for a name. Almost any title would do as long as she could think of one fast. The first name that came to mind was picked as the winner. "YUKIO!"

"Yukio?" Tristan repeated.

"Yeah… He gets what he wants… he's a spoiled little brat…" Tea added, teasing on the lit stage she was now treading on. Tristan blinked a few times, but slowly his questions were being answered. With that last thought in mind he got up from his bench and knelt down next to Tea and her temporary prisoner.

"How old his he?"

"Preschool!"

"So he's… four?"

"MMF!?"

"Yeah… he's… just starting school!"

"Mmf! Mmf!"

"Ah… By the way, it's great that you're taking care of your cousin and all but… why… are you muffling him?" Tristan questioned pointing at Seto's sad position.

"Er… The reason I'm muffling him is because he's… kind of on the rude side. He likes to act like a know-it-all and often forgets his manners. I didn't want him to offend you."

"Uh... Tea… You shouldn't have to worry about that," he explained, "Look, I'm not sure what's got you worked up but I think you should let go him." Tea was hesitant but eventually she nodded and slowly released her captive, allowing him to take in the air he missed out on. After his lungs were content Seto whirled around to face Tea once more.

"I take it you have issues with letting me breathe," he claimed lazily.

"It's not the breathing I'm worried about. It's your mouth," Tea answered. Seto rolled his eyes and buried his face into the palm of his hand. What did he do to deserve this? Well… Besides taking an old man's Blues Eyes Card, ripping it, initiating multiple corporate takeovers, humiliating Wheeler… multiple times, borrowing a card with no intention of returning it, destroying Tea's report, and being an overall jerk. On second thought, never mind…

"So Yukio is it?" Tristan said, making Seto turn his focus back on him.

"Uhuh," Seto replied, he decided to roll with the supposed plan for now. He even tried to look innocent for once despite the fact that he lost the ability ages ago.

"Nice to meet you. Tea may have already told you about me, but I'm Tristan," he greeted with a smile. Even though his morning had turned rotten he was still shooting for that chance to have somewhat of a decent day.

Seto studied the narwhal haired person in front him. The smile and welcoming eyes signaled that Seto was in the clear for now and he was grateful for that. However, while analyzing that face he caught something that was oh-so apparent.

"Who took out the pepper spray?" Seto asked, unable to prevent himself from smirking a little. The question left behind it one surprised and stuttering victim.

"Heh… Erm… Well… I-It was…"

"Security? Did you shoplift?"

"Kai-YUKIO!" Tea scolded.

"Relax Gardner, I was just curious of your little friend's misfortune," Seto answered mockingly. Tea could feel the burning heat come forth from her insides again, but once it met her head it came out as steam. She let a sly smile perk up from under her nose. Even though Seto was acting as normally confident, she knew something special. Being little and trying his best to hide his identity from Tristan, Seto was in a vulnerable position. Not only was this the chance to strike back at him, but prevent him from worsening her caring friend's day. The trap had already been set for her, and now it was time to use it.

"That's Miss Gardner to you, Yukio," she declared mustering a serious tone to disguise the taunting that was about to come. Seto looked back at her shooting right through her rouge, and raised an eyebrow at her challenge.

"Excuse me, but I don't recall having to refer to you as _your highness_," Seto said, once again swapping his attention.

"Your mother didn't say you had to, but she did tell me to keep you from being obnoxious little bear, " Tea continued. For a babysitter touch she even leaned over him and pointed a finger in the air like a teacher. And Seto's buttons were pushed even more by the mocking baby voice Tea hooked at the end.

Although Seto held the poker face before her, he was stunned and enraged at this comment. He could have said something, anything to remind Tea who was superior around here. Alas, Tristan's presence and his embarrassing secret handicapped him. Tea had on her side what would be apparent for a babysitter and child using the very fabric of his disguise. In that case he was the naive one, he was the immature one, he was the inexperienced one, he was the weakling. If he did anything to prove otherwise he would be ripping holes in his own disguise, his own bliss. Oh, how he hated her that minute, almost more than everything else. Still, he didn't back down, and took his chances to regain himself with the limited options he had.

"And I suppose me talking at all is being obnoxious," he retorted.

"Look, I've known Tristan for a while now and I know he'd never do something as low as that. It is impolite to assume things you don't know," Tea pointed out, "and if you keep this up you're grounded."

"Oh please Miss Gardner, anything but that," Seto commented sarcastically flapping a hand onto his cheek to add to the melodrama, "I don't want my Gamebuddy taken away."

"Oh don't worry, I'm not going to take that away. I was thinking more along the lines of a certain gemstone," she hinted. Seto shook off the mocking face and took his time to stare his opponent deep into the eyes.

"You wouldn't dare…" he growled. Tea confidently stood straight once again and put her hands on her hips showing off her superiority.

"Oh, I would, alright," she assured him.

"Uh… Tea… Really, it's okay," Tristan tried add in, only to be what he usually was… ignored.

"So are you going to be a good little boy?" she asked Seto, enjoying every dewdrop of this moment.

"How about this? I'll be a _good_ little boy if you'll promise to keep your mouth shut and mind your own business."

"How about this? YOU keep YOUR mouth shut and you won't have to dig through the garbage trying to find those 'enchanted' shards."

"Enchanted shards?" Tristan repeated, quizzically. Seto took note of his conscious once again and felt a surge of electricity shoot down his spine. It circulated in his shoulders and curled his hands into two shivering fists. He couldn't accept this fact. That he was being defeated all because of his new 'standing'. The cheerleader was already referring to his secret and it would only take one wrong word to set her over the edge. He stared at the threatening brown eyes behind him, as they curiously watched and waited for the knowledge to laugh at his misery. He regretfully, was cornered at the moment.

He snatched the highest part of Tea's shirt he could reach and yanked her head down to his. "We'll discuss this later," he whispered in her ear. After that, he roughly threw her back, although with his might it was nothing more than an ineffective nudge backwards. The multi-millionaire then turned to face the bug of a problem behind him and posed as reassuringly as possible. "It's… one of my... more special toys… Anyway, _Miss Gardner_ do you want to do some more shopping instead of working on your report? I mean it doesn't matter if you fail it, right?"

Now, it was Tea's turn to feel the burning spark. She narrowed her sizzling eyes on him. "Well, it's not like I'm shopping for myself," Tea argued.

"Oh, that's right. You're shopping for me even though I stated clearly that I didn't need any new clothes."

"So… In other words you enjoyed wearing what your 'mom' picked out with the 'little' pandas and the 'cute' bamboo stalks?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Seto denied, turning his head away vainly. Tea simply smiled at his response and struck her hand into the bag he still held. "Ah!" She pulled out the shirt and held up it up.

"Oh, I'm sure you do," she laughed in Seto's somewhat irritated face.

"Look… how about we simply get back to your house so we can do something progressive for a change? I'm getting a cramp just by standing here and listening to your nonsense," he stated, as impatience started to grow on him, "We've done your shopping. Your break is over!" At this comment, Tea receded from answering. This time she agreed with him. What were they gaining by pecking at each other? She closed her eyes and sighed.

"Alright, Yukio…" she said .

"About time…" Seto muttered. He started for an exit out of the mall, but failed at having Tea follow. He let vision fall back around once more to face her new distractions. She was asking Tristan something. Asking him something that Seto wasn't very fond of.

"Hey Tristan, would you like to walk home with us?" the words spewed out of her mouth. "I think since we're all having crummy days it might be nice to cool down together." Seto tensed. Oh no. His goal was set at not only leaving the mall but leaving that point haired freak behind as well. Seto knew as long as Tristan was around he'd have to keep up his childish little act and as long as he kept up his act he would remain at check by Tea. It only came to more of his horror when Tristan replied.

"Well… I guess there's nothing better to do," he said, shrugging. That answer shoved Seto across the line.

"What are you doing!?" he abruptly screamed at Tea from his slightly afar post. The puzzled look that had left the pointy haired teenager just a minute go returned to its place and Seto found himself once again, on cracked ice. To make an excuse for his incidental outburst he quickly added, "He'll distract you!"

"Wow, I didn't know you cared so much," Tea laughed.

"I can care less about your pathetic report… It's… the fact that we… that he…"

"Yes, Yukio?" Seto went silent at those two simple words. They smothered him and made him to fold one time more than he allowed himself.

Breaking his eye lock with Tea he mumbled,"Whatever." The small teenager turned his back again. Seto knew whether he liked it or not, he was going to have to hold up his rouge for a little longer. He jotted down in his mind a promise right then. The first split second he got to be alone with Tea there was going to be a few of his own rules put down on her back. Ones that will remind her that he was still to be treated with respect, despite the change in physical appearance. For now however, he had no choice but to take up his new identity, the identity of Yukio, Tea Gardner's smart-mouthed little cousin.

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I hope you all haven't died on me. Sorry about not updating. Writers block is a pain but thanks to Spooki's hammering I finally got something done. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks for suggesting names. XD My only regret is I did not choose Conan Edogawa as his nick. jk jk XD But then Tristan would be like "Wait a sec... Isn't that from Detective Conan?" Um.. yeah... I'm on my own body-made sugar which is good since I've been dealing with a ton of stress lately.

Btw, I'm planning on making a huge picture with scenes and previews of my other fanfiction ideas. When it's down I'll post the link and you can go and tell me if any of them sound good to you and you want me to write them. Until then enjoy what I have up now. Um... And if it wouldn't be too much trouble please check out some of my other stories. Anyway, thanks for reading.


	12. Cookies

Um… This was a slow chapter to write. I had to push myself to get through this. Still, I hope it doesn't stink. I'm just trying to link where I last left off to my future ideas. It's not terrible… but… OH! Heck with it. Just read. XD

No… I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh… It belongs to Kazuki Takahashi… Hm… but if I owned Kasuki Takahashi…

Oh yeah, I have no copyrights over Kodak or 99 Red Ballons by Goldfinger… Yes… 99 Red Balloons, Spooki… SEE WHAT YOUR TERRIBLY ADDICTING SONG HAS DOWN TO ME!? Meh…

And Neopets Seto is finally a draik! Can I get a hurrah!?

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Chapter 12 - Cookies  
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"Blah-blah blaaaah blah blah. Blah, Joey, blah, blah, blah! Blah!"

"Blah blah? Blah-blah-blah blah… Blah blah… Blah."

"Blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah… Blah…"

This was all Seto heard during their way back to Tea's house or rather… the most he wanted to hear from the two incompetents. He could care less about the junk they were conversing about as long as it didn't involve him in any shape or form. Not that he would be able to do much about it anyway, things being as they are now. Nevertheless, in return for ignoring their chatter he received vacant concentration to brainstorm the more important matters on his mind. Like how he was going to get out of this mess with absolutely NO leads.

He could spend a day or two, perhaps even three in the body of a child. Then it would be no more than a little forgotten 'accident' he resolved just like all his other problems. The CEO would even have the pleasure of devising a plan of torture or blackmail to keep Gardner quiet. However, what if things didn't turn out the way he wanted them to? And he ended up staying this way for weeks, months, YEARS! Kaiba Corp would burn itself down to the ground by the time he came back.

That then brought in an even more unsettling feeling on his stomach. What if this was not a problem he could overcome. What if he was stuck like this! Would he grow up all over again under care of the last person he had the incident of devastating? Even worse… what if he was stuck this way forever to be treated like an insignificant child. To be babied, shoved aside, and looked down upon for the rest of his miserable life. He'd lose everything he had worked so hard to achieve! Sadly, with the way things were going now through his pessimistic mind, it seemed to be the most likely ending to his story.

Seto scrunched his eyelids tightly shut along with his fists. No, he couldn't let that be the rest of his life. He REFUSED to let it be the rest of his life. He was better than that. It was too early to judge anyway. He hadn't even gotten started on researching that stone. Kaiba was set on getting back to his company in his glorious normal being or die trying.

"Yukio?" he caught that certain female walking next to him say. Entranced by his previous thoughts it took him a tiny while to register who this Yukio was. But it was only a split second before it to hit him… quite literally.

BAM!

His face had met the smooth steel of your local street light. He stumbled backwards while a pudgy hand instantly slapped over the main victim of the collision, his poor little nose. Right then Seto unleashed all the raw fury that had been building up with a very loud, "DAMMIT!!!" Note to self, keep eyes open when walking.

Tristen, who was not that far from Yukio, flinched a bit at his outburst. Truth be told, he was expecting a little bit more sobbing instead of what the little boy had shown. Still, he put on the big brother personality he used when he was required to look over his own cousin. At least he was doing much more than Tea who at the moment couldn't decide whether she should be concerned or fall to the ground giggling. Really, how many of you would restrain a smirk when that arrogant celebrity who's been insulting you all day does something as klutzy as this?

"Hey, are you okay?" Tristen asked, kneeling down next to set himself eye level with Seto. It then soon was revealed that Tea didn't make a bad choice when she decided not to comfort the little ingrate.

Kaiba had only returned her foolish friend's concern with an menacing (but actually kind of cute) glare and once he removed the hands from his nose he snarled, "Oh gee… does it look like it!?"

"Well, you don't have to get snippy about it," Tristen answered correspondingly. His warm brown eyes then caught sight of a red stream falling from Yukio's left nostril. As a matter of fact the child himself had taken notice to it noticing the red staining his palm.

"Great…" he muttered clasping a hand back on his bloody nose.

"Hey Tea, do you have tissue or something? Seems your cousin got a tiny nosebleed from the collision." To this Tea had to press her hand pretty hard against her mouth to keep it from releasing the endless chortles. Not only did Seto collide with a street light, but he got a nosebleed from it? The girl could only imagine what this would look like if he was still a full-grown teenager. Yet, to keep herself from looking like a total harpy, she dug into her purse for something to soak up the bleeding. A cute pink handkerchief was pulled from the purse.

Taking the piece of cloth Tea held out in hand, Tristen lightly pulled Seto's hand off his nose. He was answered by a sharp, "Hey!" but before the kid could continue Tristen started dabbing up the blood that stained his upper lip. It was a much more difficult task than it seemed since Yukio madly fidgeted, not very much enjoying the thought of somebody else treating his little 'boo-boo'.

Once the job was done Tristen placed the handkerchief in Seto's hand. "You might want to keep that placed on your nose for a while until the bleeding stops…" he instructed. Seto didn't thank him with anything more than his seemingly permanent glare, but like he was told, he did hold it up against his nose. Now the harpoon haired teen had his concern on Tea. He stood up and facing her, started, "You know Tea, I know this is your first time and all but you really should keep a better eye on Yukio."

"I know, I know…" Tea sighed, a smile on her face left from the great Seto Kaiba parading into a street light. Although, in her mind, she already confirmed that Kaiba needed her constant monitoring just about as much as a slug needed salt.

"I can't imagine how you're juggling your make up report with looking after him…" Tristen went on. The phrase made Tea's smile vanish. Now that was true. That one statement was unbearably true. All this time she had been too concerned with miniature Kaiba, that she hadn't spent a dime of seconds on her make up report. Then it hit her how ironic it was that Seto was now slowly and indirectly destroying her second report.

Speaking of the essay murderer, he had peeked up from the pink cloth caressing his nose. Interestingly enough, he was allowing himself to listen to their conversation this time. His eyes glued on Tea.

"I'm sorry for being nosy but how far are you on your report right now? Have you even gotten started?" Tristen interrogated.

"Hm…" Tea frowned and shook her head guiltily. She perked right back up though to try and put in her defense, "But I'm going to get started on it right as soon as I get home."

"And Yukio?"

"He brought plenty of toys and activity books," Tea quickly lied regaining a weak smile, "I'm sure he'll be too busy playing with them to need me…"

"I don't know Tea… Perhaps you should let me look over the tyke. You know where I live and-"

"NO!" Tea abruptly yelped causing Tristen to jump back a bit. Regaining her composure a bit, Tea shakily answered, "I mean… I'm sorry Tristen, but I would prefer he stayed with me."

"Alright, but if you have any problems you should consider giving me or Yugi a call… I'm sure Mr. Mutou wouldn't have a problem babysitting Yukio…" Tristen calmly suggested.

"Thanks… but I'm sure even Mr. Mutou is no match for the Yukio the incredibly cranky," Tea answered, her weak smile becoming a bright and humorous one. "Come on, let's get going again before he starts getting another cramp." She shot a glance down at Seto who turned away before she could look twice and was already on his way. As he walked, he took the cloth from his nose for a second and tested it to see if he was still bleeding. He ended up placing it back on his face.

Tristen started moving alongside Tea. Her last statement dragging on in his mind until eventually he asked, "Speaking of which… Your cousin has been acting a bit… er… bratty… so far…" His voice softened to a whisper upon the word 'bratty' to avoid a potential squabble with the five-year-old. "Don't tell me that's how he always acts…"

Tea sighed, "Well… if he has a good side. He has yet to show it…"

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Before long the trio had reached their destination. Waves and good byes between Tea and Tristen took place while Seto stood outside the door, waiting impatiently. The handkerchief he had used to assist his nosebleed was now uselessly hanging from his hand. Now desecrated with spots of dried blood, the unfortunate cloth was waiting for its fate at the bottom of a trash can. Of course, Seto would have no problems helping its destiny be reached.

Finally, Tea's friend had disappeared down the sidewalk and Seto felt like a boulder had been removed from his shoulders. Now he was free to say and do whatever he pleased without being questioned. The girl that had been wronging him in so many ways this morning was now heading in his direction. It was time to have a little chat with her…

"Now that your friend's gone, would you care explaining to me what the HELL you were thinking?" he let out once Tea had reached the door. The girl rolled her eyes as she pulled out her house keys. She knew this was coming sooner or later but boldly as ever, she fought back.

"Oh, I'm sorry Kaiba," she answered the self-centered brat sarcastically, "I wasn't aware my job now was to bend over for a pint-sized nihilist."

"Don't suspect you can treat me like a baby and get away with it scotch clean, Gardner…" Seto growled dangerously. Unfortunately for him, that statement only left Tea stealing his signature smirk as she jammed a key into the lock.

"Trust me. As long as you're mooching off me for shelter and food, I can… and I will…" she replied feeling the rush of superiority.

"The next time you dare try to-"

FWAM! Seto was left standing silent in incredulity… now missing one Tea Gardner to yell at.

Tea let out a sigh. It felt great to be home. Finally, she could get started on the makeup report that was causing her so much stress. The first step of the stairs creaked under he weight by the time the door had opened again. The silhouette of a certain furious little boy could be made out. It muttered to her, "You have a death wish I take it…" Through some amazement, this time Tea actually managed to ignore him and continue her journey up the stairs.

It could be dubbed a miracle that Seto didn't follow her all the way up there with insults. This was no hardship for Tea though, because once she reached her room she was only able to land herself in a single section of it, the bed. Words couldn't describe how exhausted she was and underneath her battered soul the bed brought heaven to her. Tea's day wasn't over yet though, it was far from it. Her tired eyes grazed the blank computer screen in the corner of her room. How long will it be before she finds her fingers tapping those keys? Then a green twinkle brought her blue orbs over to the shards on her dresser. She scowled.

"Yeah, thanks a lot… Kaiba is so much better as a mentally overgrown brat," she grumbled to them. With nothing more to blame, she hid her face in the depths of a frilled dodger blue pillow.

The tired warrior heard soft thuds in the hallway. They grew louder as they progressed but did not succeed anything more than a whisper. Once the last but loudest thudding was made, she confirmed the one causing them was in her doorframe. Without a single budge her cotton muffled voice said, "They're on the drawer if you forgot. Get them and change yourself back to normal already."

It seemed the day finally took pity on her because this time the only unpleasant noise that answered her was… a grunt. No sharp remarks, no insults, no words of any kind, just an utter that showed his acknowledgement. Or perhaps this was just where he wanted her. On the bed, completely exhausted, with no intentions of carrying on a fight. Darn that Kaiba…

The carpet let out tiny hisses as his footsteps began again, but this time in her room. She heard the wood of her dresser and the shifting of trinkets. After about five seconds it stopped and once again the sounds of rubber soles against carpet started yet again. The noise was becoming quieter and more distant now. Eventually, it had disappeared completely and at last, Tea knew that she was in peaceful silence.

She released her face from the pillow and looked at her open door that Seto had just exited through. She was praying that maybe, just maybe, it would be the last time he bothered her for a couple hours… Nah, that was asking too much. Tea freely sat up and stared at the still blank computer monitor… Well, time to get started.

Being the piece of rubbish her computer was, it took it forever to boot up. There was a good side to this though. As she waited for the computer to load, Tea was reminded of something that she had forgotten this morning. It's a good thing her stomach was on the job. With one growl, the guilt took her over for not only skipping dinner last night but breakfast as well. She stared at the screen ahead of her loading unsure of getting up but it was easily confirmed it wouldn't be going anywhere.

Easy as that, she got up and set off to the kitchen to help herself to the treasury for a snack. She pondered a second what she would have and unfortunately, a sweet tooth got the best of her.

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The tapping of keys was music to his ears. It almost felt like he was back in his office, ignoring everything except the monitor in front of him. Harmony, plain joyous harmony had finally reached him. Sadly, the stress didn't completely leave Seto. His mind was still registered on the reason he was typing what he was in the first place.

After checking his company's stocks and whatnot to make sure everything was okay, he began running searches. Desperate to find something, anything, about the gem shards that now shared the guest bed with him. The personal super-powered Kaiba Corp search engine tried related minerals, fountain of youth legends, science of the aging process, and almost to his own disbelief, cursed gemstones. Every minute that passed added another pint of worry to his mind.

In between searches he experimented with the shards. Amusingly enough, he looked just like a normal little boy doing so. Seto shook them, rubbed them, tried to put them back together but in the end, nothing seemed to arouse the magnificent pieces of stone. Then again, perhaps it was a good thing in case the stone was meant for only one purpose. The CEO shuddered to think about being left so weak and pathetic that he could barely mobilize his pudgy infantile body by crawling around on the carpet.

After several minutes of organized scanning and searching the feeling that had hit Tea returned to take it's effect on Seto. His stomach let out a loud growl. Softly he placed a hand on it to calm it. He thought for a moment but unlike Tea he wasn't so ready to give up on his work. The stubborn boy set his fingers back on the keyboard, typing. This only upset his stomach further and it let out another cry. Seto was fighting a losing battle.

Contrary to what most people believe Kaiba did eat like every other normal person. Sure, he always skipped lunch due to either work or school (seriously… him eating cafeteria food? Get real), and he didn't get much time to scarf down breakfast on weekdays. Still, most of the time when he wasn't over working, his personal chef provided him and Mokuba an excellent gourmet selection for dinner. Yes, it was a fact that he was rather skinny but that didn't mean he starved himself.

Finally giving up, Seto pushed away the laptop and slipped of the bed driven by bother hunger and slight curiosity. He always found the idea of digging through somebody else's personal fridge a bit disturbing but where else was he going to get a normal meal without raising a few brows? May as well, find out what the owner of the house had.

He crept downstairs and into the room he used to find Tea's incredibly bitter coffee. Only this time, he was greeted by a warm, rich, and absolutely wonderful smell. The curious little boy looked around, following his nose, and soon landing himself in front of the oven. On top of it was a tray. A tray that Seto could only gaze upon by standing on his toe tips. The contents were cookies... Obviously left out to cool, the warm, freshly baked, chocolate chip cookies shaped like stars and birds were teasing him. Seto wasn't easily tempted by their baked freshness though, and lost interest despite what his stomach wanted. Time to raid the fridge.

This time Seto was lucky enough to find an untouched roasted chicken still in the plastic container. He relieved it of its position on the shelf and carried it to the table. Once he set it down he thought about what to do with it. He could make a chicken sandwich. That wouldn't be too difficult other than having to scale the counter to be in reach the bread. He headed back to the fridge to grab some mayonnaise.

Like he suspected after grabbing the bread, it wasn't too difficult. He now had his lunch for the day. Seto was to make his depart back to the guestroom when suddenly, that wonderful wisp of a smell started taunting him again. He narrowed his eyes briefly, trying to decide if he should steal a cookie or two. But of course, he couldn't let himself eat something _Tea_ baked. He led himself to the kitchen doorway before stopping again. Okay… Maybe one…

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Progress on her makeup report was going much smoother than Tea expected. The information she needed seemed to fall right into her notes. Not to mention, she had plenty of sources and information at her fingertips. Yep, things were actually starting to look brighter. It wasn't a happy-glorious-day brighter, but it was nicer than what she went through. Plus, she couldn't wait to sink her teeth into her own little reward for putting up with such a bad weekend.

Come to think of it, it had been a while since she pulled the cookies out of the oven. They should have cooled off by now. A smile arose on her face as she jotted down one last note before heading back to the kitchen.

On the way, she passed the door where Seto was working. Interestingly, it was open and she could see his tiny figure inside mesmerized by his laptop screen. If she had actually stared a little longer before walking past though, she would have realized something was in his mouth, being devoured crumb by crumb. Despite this it didn't matter because in the end, she had discovered a partially barren cookie sheet.

"Huh!?" Tea let out in a gasp. The cookies were somewhat cleverly spread out across the sheet to look like there had been no interference. Nonetheless, there was no denying the now gaping spaces between what cookies were leftover. There were plenty enough lying untouched for her but she couldn't help but be a little bit shocked. There was only one possible culprit that could have liberated the pan of her cookies and that was Lil' McRuthless. She smiled in soft amusement. "You have got to be kidding me…"

She walked back upstairs, and to the guestroom, just in time to see Seto pop that last piece of sugary and chocolate chip goodness into his mouth. It was amazing that he looked quite normal doing so except for energetically kicking his left leg over the side of the bed. No doubt, a subconscious result of sugar high.

Tea immediately slipped out of the doorway and back into the hall. Her puzzlement melted away into sheer humor as she walked down it.

"Well, guess you learn something new everyday," Tea said as a conclusive thought and took the first bite out of a chocolate chip cookie in her hand.

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Alas, night had engulfed the Gardner residence once again. The yard was turned into a dark but peaceful sea with the homey two-story house as the ship. Only two windows glowed a cheerful yellow and they were coming from Tea's bedroom.

She couldn't believe it. It had been long and boring but Tea's research was half way done and at the speed she was going, maybe… just maybe… her entire vacation wasn't a goner. It was the most exciting thought she had all weekend. Give it another day or two and she would have it done. Of course, she'd have to work nonstop for those next few days but it would be worth having six or five days of freedom… Well, if she could find a way to get rid of or muzzle Kaiba.

She wondered if he was still on his laptop trying to find a way out of his situation. Maybe he had already changed back to normal. There was only one way to find out. Tea got up and headed down to Seto's bedroom. Upon reaching it the girl was slightly thankful Kaiba had never bothered to shut the door enabling her to peek in with little effort. To her dismay but not to her surprise Seto was still hosting a figure under four feet tail and hugged by baby fat. However, she did not leave the sight unpleased.

It was a hilariously ironic sight to be frank. Seto had dozed off and was lying slightly curled next to his laptop. His arms were sprawled out revealing a hint that he was probably sitting up when he fell asleep. It was silly and cute enough to fool even the smartest of people into thinking he was just a helpless, innocent, kindergartner. Tea had heard that no matter how much of a rotten brat a child was they always looked so peaceful, like little angels, once they fell asleep. But this was Kaiba! The tyrant who made her feel like stabbing herself to death with a screwdriver. There he was, lying before her like a cute little brother. It was that same pinching feeling she had when she carried him to her house.

She shook her head and to keep her head on straight she told his sleeping form, "Kaiba, you are such a faker…"

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

_**Mood:**_ _ Odd…  
__**Listening to:**_ _ 99 Red Balloons by Goldfinger _

_I'm surprised how much I've been writing down in here lately. Usually I don't have much to say but this week has been a bit… interesting. I've already told you about Kaiba so you should already know about what happened to him. _

_This morning he made himself out to be an even bigger pain in the butt. Okay… I know I'd probably be upset if I was turned into back into a little girl but I wouldn't put up an attitude about it. I was nice enough to let him into my house and provide him with food until he gets changed back (I do hope he gets changed back. There is no way I want Kaiba mooching off me for who knows how long) and do you know how he thanks me? He goes around like he owns the place all the while 'attempting' to boss and chew on me. HE HAS NOT CHANGED ONE BIT! HE'S THE SAME BRAT, JUST IN A SMALLER PACKAGE!_

_I'm sorry for using caps but Kaiba really needs to get some morality through that thick skull of his… That or a spanking… LOL! XD Not that 'I' would give it to him but seriously needs one. _

_Despite this though, I guess it turned out to be a good day, if not a bit funny. I met Tristan at the mall when getting Kaiba some new clothes for his 'petite' body. I also got to play with his head a little (Kaiba's, not Tristan's mind you. XD). And if that wasn't good enough he ran straight into a street lamp! AND GOT A NOSEBLEED FROM IT! XD I also slammed the door on him. I'm sure he wasn't so happy about that._

_Still… there is something that bugs me. Crazy as this sounds but I think I might be learning a little bit about Kaiba. Of course, I still hate him. Don't get me wrong but it's so odd though. I got a little bit hungry today after I came home. I had some chocolate chip cookie mix wasting away in my pantry so I decided to grab it. After taking the cookies out of the oven to cool who would come by but little 'Yukio' (That's Kaiba's new name by the way). By the time I came down to grab some he had already gone through half of them! Really, who knew Kaiba liked cookies? Oo _

_But tonight has probably been the most interesting part. Right now he's sleeping in the guestroom and well… I hate to say it but… He looks kind of cute. Hah hah… If only I could stick his thumb in his mouth and add a teddy bear. It'd be a Kodak moment._

_Well, it's getting late so I'll be signing off. Thank you for being my friend when Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Ryou are absent… Hm… Speaking of which I wonder what happened to Ryou… Oh well… I'm sure I'll find out soon enough._

_Good night!_

With that Tea booted down her computer and got ready for bed. She was prepared for a interesting week.

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Aww… Poor widdle Kaiba. Don't worry, you won't change into a baby… I'm saving that for another fanfiction. -insert maniacal laughter here-

And wow… I'm afraid. This chapter turned out to be more cute than funny. Oh well… You won't believe the conversations I had on this chapter with my best internet friend.

**Tea's blog: kaiba iz so lyk WHOA!!!11**

AAAAANNNDDDD… I'm too lazy to dig out the Kaiba vs. Streetlight one…

I've also finally managed to gain the courage to send a note to one of my most favorite fanfic writers of all time and DUN DUN DUN! She replied. Although it went along the lines of…

Me: Hi, I'm Keruha!

Shrilanka: Nice to meet you.

Yeah… Did I mention I suck at starting conversation with people?

**Anyway, next chapter…**

Tea and Seto wish for a peaceful week all alone to get what the want done… Shame that Tea's concerned friends have a different idea in mind. Joey… let me introduce you to your ultimate revenge without even knowing.


	13. Muttzilla

Bah. Dished this out in 2nd period. I have another idea I'm going to be working on soon so you might want to watch out for that. So yeah, don't have much to say except for all you people of Nanika... POST! The Terror Mountain roleplay is going nowhere, and Seto is waiting for his part to kick assassin butt!

Why!? Why do you still ask me if I own Yu-Gi-Oh when I made that clear twelve chapters ago? D:

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-  
Chapter 13 - Muttzilla  
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The strips of bacon sizzled nicely, and lifted a delicious aroma into the air. Not a few feet away, a toaster gave call to inform the cooker that her toast was ready for buttering. At last, the eggs perched in the pan joined them by showing off their golden fluffiness.

There wasn't a better way to set the day off to Tea then this. To top this all off for the moment, the negative influence of yesterday was still sawing logs in dreamland. She hoped that he stayed there for a while. For it not only was in her better interest to have a morning without harassment, but probably his as well, to have a morning without struggling against his own belittled physique. A half-sincere smirk worked the edges of her mouth, playing ideas of what he could be seeing in that fazed world only known to him. He was most likely wishing her to be on hand and knee, begging for mercy. Well, Seto better enjoy that experience the best he could, because once he woke up that wasn't going to happen.

Now that breakfast was ready to eat, she set the food unto her plate, but before she could sit down that song of a doorbell pierce the room. "Huh?" The plate clacked onto the wood of the table, and the girl treaded a path to the door. "Coming!" she reassured whoever was on the other side. Although she hadn't laid eyes upon the person on the other side of the door, she had already had a sinking feeling of who it could be. Her hand met with the soft metal of the knob, and slowly she turned it. Not a second after the door creaked an inch open a familiar set off eyes locked with hers.

"Hi Tea!"

"Yugi?….. Joey? Tristan? Wha-What…?" Tea stuttered, observing the entire gang in front of her.

"I tried to tell them, but they wouldn't listen," Tristan stated, trying to restore his name. Joey let out a snort.

"Hey! If I remember right you were the one who said 'Okay, sure' when I suggested we help Tea."

"Wait… What's going on?"

"Well, we were going to allow you to work on the report by yourself," Yugi explained in humble kind of tone, "but Tristan told us how you were looking after your cousin while you were trying to do your paper so we…"

"Came to your rescue…" a new softer voice said. Tea's eye had slipped her the first time, but now she was in clear view. Joey's little sister was standing with a bright smile, obviously happy to be reunited with an old friend, "Hi Tea, long time no see."

"Serenity, you're here too…? Oh, that's right… You're in Domino for the week to spend time with your brother," Tea said. She shamed herself for forgetting something so exciting, but a body couldn't blame her with all that has happened.

"Yep, I reached the train station yesterday."

"Heh, its… nice to see you again."

While Tea had given her semi-warm welcome to Serenity, she failed to notice the girl's brother slip into the house. He snooped around the living room for a few seconds before eventually blurting, "So where's the munchkin that's giving you so much trouble?" Tea whipped her attention over her shoulder in an instant.

"JOEY!"

"What?"

"Get out of my living room!"

"Come on, how can we babysit your cousin if we don't know where he is?" Tea fell silent at the naïve teen and shook her head.

"Look… You guys this is a really bad time… I'm real busy and…"

"Hm… Is that bacon I smell?" Tristan asked joining Joey in the room.

"Hey, yeah…" Joey confirmed.

"Well, looks like you have enough time to cook breakfast," Yugi said, most meekly and unoffending as he could.

"Ugh… I give up…" Tea moaned. She placed herself in front of the door to make sure the other two boys didn't make off with her food and began to address the deal, "I appreciate the thought, but Yukio does not need to be babysat… Still… I guess you guys can stay for breakfast JUST as long as you keep fairly quiet and don't go upstairs. Yukio is asleep right now, and I doubt he wants to be bothered."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"What? But it's already 10:45," the blonde snorted.

"Come on Joey, you slept until noon when I tried to call you last week," Serenity giggled.

"Yeah… Well… I stayed up real late that night."

"Either way, PLEASE don't wake him up," Tea said. With everything said and done she retreated to the kitchen to scramble some extra eggs.

Before long the entire group was situated at the table. The two taller boys were wolfing down the bacon and scrambled eggs before them, while the others took the time to follow table manners. Of course, this feast couldn't go on without a conversation. There were so many curious subjects on their minds, and poor Tea had to come up with answers for them all. Most of the questions had to be delivered false information, mainly the ones circling around the boy living in her guest bedroom and the jewel. Fortunately, it seemed Tristan had already conversed most of the lies that she and Seto formed yesterday at the mall. Nonetheless, there was still a stray, new question here and there that raised the girl's heart into her throat. Finally though, their ammo ran out and Tea was free to fire back.

"So what are guys going to do for your vacations?" she asked pushing away an empty plate.

"Well, I think that would be obvious for me and my brother," Serenity said warmly, glancing over at Joey who was chewing on his fourth piece of toast.

Yugi let out a disappointed sigh to the same question, but the thought brought him joy knowing he was on almost the same page Tea was on as far as his vacation went. "Grandpa is going to be having me clean out the attic. We have so much clutter up there that you can't see the floor."

"Well, you can bet I'd rather be over there than glued to a monitor."

"Yeah, Joey told me about that. I'm real sorry Kaiba destroyed your report," Serenity said, holding a small frown.

"Why are you sorry? You weren't the one who threw it into a puddle."

"Yeah, I know… but…"

"Next time I see that stuck up punk, he's gonna find out what dirt tastes like!" Joey muffled through his toast, "For real this time!"

"Why do I highly doubt that?" Tristan asked. Tea couldn't help but let out small giggle. Unlike the others she actually knew that the war between Seto and Joey was a whole different ball game now. The sad part (or cool part depending how you look at it) was that Joey could now easily beat the stuffing out of mini Kaiba, if he knew where and who he was. It almost even seemed unfair.

All of sudden, Joey shot up from his seat, and the toast fell from his hand. He dashed out of the kitchen with only the excuse of a brief shout. "Bathroom!"

"Well… At least he's straightforward…" Tristan commented, blinking at the door his friend just exited. Not a minute after, the rapid thumping of Joey's shoes became stunted, and revealed the sound of oak against his soles. The owner of the house sprang up from her seat.

"Please don't tell me he's going upstairs…" Tea choked.

CRASH! THUMP! CLUD!

"GAAAHHHH!!!"

"YAAAHHHH!!!"

The girl buried her forehead into her hand. "Great…"

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

What the hell? What the bloody hell!? He was minding his own business for once, just heading to the bathroom to take a well-deserved shower. The work he enveloped himself in at the break of dawn was beginning to frustrate him, and eventually, he just had to convince himself to take a break. Although, he admitted to getting distracted halfway down the hall when an innocent spider on the wall caught his attention. Thereafter, He fancied himself into commenting how Tea should do something about the 'pest problem' and some other various critiques about her home. It was all to let out the yearning he had to be back in his own familiar mansion. After he thoroughly complained to the spider, he was ready to depart. That was when he heard a rapid stomping coming up from behind him. It was truly amazing how fast the person was going because by the time Seto turned his head, the giant troll had jammed a kneecap into his back. The little boy felt the force of that collision as he fell forwards along with the knee that assaulted him and its attachments. There was a cry of pain that echoed from his mouth to join the startled yelp of the body as it sandwiched him with the floor. Once the impact worked its course in under a second, both masses were in pain, more Seto than whoever crushing him. After stiffly creeping enough to get his head out of the wedge he did not hesitate to yell, "As easy as it is to miss noticing me Gardner, I would be thankful if you would REFRAIN FROM TRIPPING ON ME!"

"Ow… well, it's not like it was a joy-ride for me either," the other's voice choked. It was a familiar voice, but it did not belong to the girl that was providing him with shelter. This voice was masculine and accented. It was a voice that Seto was dreading to hear ever since his regression into a little boy. He slowly turned his head. Azure eyes met blond hair. Upon this sight, his body turned into a miniature statue.

"Ah!" The CEO could take the humiliation from losing his pants, he could endure the embarrassment of being babied, but this was just plain outright dirty. It was freaking Muttzilla! On reflex, to regain any of the large and in control feeling he had left, Seto yanked himself out from under Wheeler and stood up. This only came to more embarrassment, when Joey simply sat up to meet his eye level. Aggravated more than ever seeing the superior presence of an amateur that should be at his feet, he clenched his fists. "What… What are you doing here?" Seto growled, not helping the stutter of being in this situation. Joey gave the boy a quick glance and opened his mouth. Nothing came out, and once the teen realized this, he was back on his feet, running to where he originally planned.

"Talk later! Bathroom!"

SLAM!

Kaiba gawked as the door shut, utterly speechless. Did that really just happen to HIM? Had that worthless monkey not only managed to trip on and crush him, but steal his bathroom too!? He couldn't believe this humiliating role reversal, but the more important question on hand was what he was doing here in the first place.

"Joey? We heard a scream and-Yukio!"

This morning had been simply amazing. All in the period of five minutes, Seto had gone from annoyed, to shocked, to angry, and now to dangerously pissed off. His glower could have almost penetrated the walls. There they were, his rival, Wheeler's partner, some unknown familiar girl (Sorry, it's true XD), and the criminal herself. They were all towering over him, even the dwarf. His rage began to mix with embarrassment. Being afraid to the point of hiding was not a familiar feeling to Kaiba, but at the moment his red flushed cheeks and burning hatred toward Tea was unmatched. He want to kill her, yet under the circumstances, he wasn't capable. He wasn't capable of anything except maybe finding a nice rock to hide his shameful immature body.

"Well… I… see you're up…" Tea said, meekly. She already sensed the trouble she was in, "Um… I don't suppose you saw a blonde person go by here, did you?"

"Who are they, and _what are they doing here_…?" Seto asked with frightening calmness, despite his sizzling face, and ignoring Tea's question. The girl knew that the first question was for the most part, unneeded except to conceal his identity, but she knew he deeply wanted the answer to the latter. She got down on her knees with a sense of care that would be taken as if he was a wild animal, ready to maul her face

"Yukio… These are my other friends," she said lightly, "I'm sure you remember Tristan. That's Yugi and over there is Serenity. They just came over because they wanted to have breakfast with me."

"Your pet monkey stole my bathroom…" Seto commented quietly enough, for only Tea to hear.

"YOUR bathroom…!?" she retorted a bit too loud. This raised a few brows, but immediately she pursued to correct the insult in a whisper, "Let me remind you that you're taking shelter in MY house, and although I admit that Joey could have used the downstairs bathroom, that gives you no right to insult him!"

"Whatever…" Seto muttered. He turned around, and started heading back to his room. If her friends were going to infest this house for a while, the shower could wait.

Watching the little boy's snippy mood walk down the hallway Yugi couldn't help, but be a bit surprised. "Wow… He seems kind of grumpy…"

"You should of saw him yesterday," Tristan said, before turning to his babysitter, "Are you sure you don't want us to handle him, Tea?"

"Trust me, you'd have twice the fun doing my report for me," Tea sighed, "Listen you guys, as long as he's not breaking anything, he really doesn't need to be watched. He's actually real mature for his age."

"Like when I saw him running away from the sales clerks at Spheres?" Tristan asked.

"Exactly… What? No! I mean… Most of the time he's mature…"

"Oh, and don't take it the wrong way, but Yukio acts kind of like a brat. I find it hard to believe he's not giving you a few gray hairs."

"Tristan!" Serenity scorned before stepping, "He probably just has a few problems, maybe with school or something. Not to mention, my brother did accidentally collide with him. He mostly likely just needs somebody to talk to." As if on cue, Joey finally came out of the bathroom.

"Ah, sweet relief… Huh? Hey, where did the kid go?"

"Yukio went to his bedroom, after you ran a crash course with him," Tea answered.

"So that was your cousin, huh… Er… Heh, sorry about that. I kind of didn't see him." The girl sighed, then tried to make a closure.

"Okay you guys, you've had breakfast with me and met Yukio. You should go home now. I still have a report to work on, and I'm sorry, I appreciate the thought, but honestly don't need any help… With the report or Yukio." There was a bit of sympathetic silence before a brash hero came to save the day.

"Oh, I see how it is," Joey said. Immediately Tea and the others turned their attention on him. "You think we can't handle some three-foot kid."

"No, it's just that-"

"You know, if you have been working on your report, he's probably been cramped up and alone in your house all day," Tristan added.

"But he actually-"

"Listen Tea, me and Serenity are planning on going to a- going to be exploring around downtown. If he comes with us, he'll get a chance to run around, and he'll be out of your hair all day. Just think, it wouldn't just help you, but him too."

"You guys… I-"

SMASH!

Once again the hallway returned to silence. The noise appeared to have come in the direction of the guestroom, which made Tea pale.

"It's never too late to change your mind," Tristan added.

"Just give me a moment…" Tea sighed. With that she headed down the hall, and into the bedroom. Muffled chatting could be heard through the walls for a moment before it turned into rather angry sniping. It then became silent again. The girl remerged from the bedroom, and walked with confidence. With him, she was dragging the pint-sized, disgruntled boy by his wrist.

"Tea?" Yugi asked, unsure of what she was doing.

"Alright, you guys want to take him out for a walk?" she asked, pulling the child in front of her, "He's all yours… Oh, and if he misbehaves, don't be afraid to punish him." She let go of Seto and sent her attention down on him, "Now you'll be a good boy for little Yugi correct?" The CEO glared at her for second, then at his new babysitters. Wonderful, plain wonderful.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Now onto finals.


End file.
